THE GREATER AND THE LESSER IMAGE
The subject of this lecture deals with God’s Image and Man’s Image. Until recent discoveries in self-knowledge, when we have asked the question, “Who made man?” we have been met with the reply given in the 27th verse of the first chapter, “God created man in His own Image, in his own image created He him” — but when we have asked how? and of What? did God make man, the answers have been unsatisfactory, to say the least. So God created man How? Accordingly to continuous expressions of what God, and Genesis answers our question logically. Now, we must go over the ground to find the “image” that is in “The Image.” To be logical, we must carefully deduce, step by step, from Principle, which is our starting point, as First Cause. This, we find to be impersonal, which is more than a personal being, putting forth from himself as a matter of impulse, or desire. Cause produces by means of its own nature. Its activity which results in product is not volitional, but compelled. First Cause we find to be Substance, Life, Love, Intelligence and Mind. These Aspects are synonymous in meaning, for it is all the same whether we say God is Life, Love, Substance, Intelligence, etc. Mind is First Cause, and when dealing with It, we are not dealing with time, but are following Order. That Divine Order which is compelled by the Nature of First Cause. We are not tracing when this or that was made; we are considering the orderly enumeration of things and not the formation of objects. We are reckoning only, with the eternal Order, or abstract Truth, not time. Time is for our discovery of the eternal. The Unit Man is eternal. In Him are His fractions. If the Unit always was, the factions in the unit must always have been. If we look into the nature of the unit, we find that order which always was, and this is the orderly enumeration of the Heaven, the Expression of First Cause, the Image of God-Mind, — The Spiritual Life, Love, Substance and Intelligent Being, — conscious Being. In Him are His parts or fractions. “A Day” is one fraction, more expression, — another day, — some more expression, until the Unit is complete. All is in Infinite Mind in the Beginning. We need to see the relation of the unit to its source, and the fundamental relation of all its parts to that same source, that we may know from whence they are derived. Light is the first day’s work, “The Power to Know” which is an expression of Mind. “The Firmament” is still another expression, — “The Power to Understand” These are two great Lights, but there are two other lights, — the Greater and the lesser, one to rule the day, and the other to rule the night, and these are spiritual perception and intellect. All are expressions of Mind, and all are good. Why? Because God is Good. On the 3rd and 5th days we find things, all of which are living things. Hence we have a variety or faculties and things, and they are all expressions of Life. Therefore, living, spiritual things and faculties. These do not mean the world or the objects seen in it, but that which is real and eternal, because expressions of changeless Cause, and all are in unity. What can separate them, held together as they are by the nature of the Unit? And the unit fixed by the nature of First Cause. All are necessarily eternal. If the unit changes not, nor cannot, neither can its fractions. Heaven is not a locality. It is that nature which expresses God’s nature. Then all the fractions in the unit are in Heaven, and there can be no discord among them, for each one has its place. Perfect Harmony reigns throughout, because of their relation to the unit, and the unit’s relation to God.
Following this, we have in its order, Man, the 6th day's work. Not a man. No article used. No name given to this man with a capital Man. The 6th day includes all the 5th is, and more. The 5th all that the 4th and is more; the 4th all that the 3rd is and more; the 3rd all that the 2nd is, and more; the 2nd all that the 1st is and more. Man contains the Whole. Man is “The Image” — the rest, an image. God’s Man is the spiritual Genus, the full expression of all that God is and does. As such, Man’s nature is composite. Man the Genus, is not an outline in space. He is spiritual, if God is Spirit, ever-living, if God is Life, ever-loving, if God is Love, enduring, substantial, if God is Substance Itself, Intelligent because God is Intelligence, for man images His Cause which is God. Then he must, by virtue of this relation, be the Spiritual Life, Love, Substance, Intelligent Being which is far more than outline or shape. He is fixed, whole, perfect, in what he is. Therefore, he was before time, — while shape belongs to time. Is shape a limitation? Yes. Thus far, shall thou go, and no farther. Is God limited? No. Then there is no outline to Principle. Why have we thought that God had shape and was a personal being? Because it was natural. Why? Because we knew no better. Why did we not know better? Because we had not used our faculties. Why? Because we did not know we had them. They are in us, but until the Truth of Being revealed, they are left unused. Can we give outline to man? No. Why not? He is greater than outline. Can you locate him? No. He is everywhere because God is omnipresence. What is our authority for this? Law of Cause and Effect. Wherever there is a living thing there is also the Life-Principle. It is everywhere. Where man is, there God is, and vice-versa. Do we see man with the natural eye? No. Can man be found? Yes, not by out sight, but through our faculties. By what? By living soul. Man’s nature is composite, and has in it all other natures. If you will observe, you will find the tiger in one, the fox in another, and various other animal natures shining through the flesh. Jesus said of Herod, “Go tell that fox” — the fox is cunning — the tiger typifies strength, the lion courage; the lamb gentleness, etc. These natures are in us all and are nothing to be ashamed of. Jesus is spoken of as the Lamb of the world. These animal natures come from that aspect of God which is Life. They are fractions in the Great Nature or Spiritual Whole; which is greater the fraction or the Whole?
TruthUnity note: “Man’s nature is composite, and has in it all other natures.” The author repeats this several times in the course. It is a very perceptive understanding of the complexity of mind.
Then everything, every nature, and faculty, is in man, and a wonderful nature is man. Is there anything greater? Only God, Why is God greater? Because Cause is always greater than effect. Creator is greater than the created, God created the Heaven and the earth. The earth, follows the Heaven, in sequence of creation. What is earth? Manifestation, which means to make clear, and plain to ourselves. It is the appearing of what is already expressed. As we state in the Basic Course, “Because of what I am, in my real true Being, What I am is fixed, whole, perfect, complete now.” But this must appear, and this involves action on our part.
Man is the whole expression of what God does as well as of what God is. He expresses the active aspect of Mind as well as the passive, Man acts and “puts forth”. Thus, creation is a divine necessity. Man is also active, and in the 3rd day, produces.
The power to reproduce, is an inherent factor in man’s nature. The Genus, has the power to produce something. Because Mind is active, man must be. His action is compelled by the God action. It is the continuation of primal motion or God action. Mind and its activity are ceasless, and Genesis sustains this statement. And “God said” let us make Man in our own image, after our likeness. Here is plurality, but we claim that God is ONE. Does us mean more than One God? No. It takes both of what God is and does to make man. God is Spiritual Life, Love, Substance Intelligent Being, and Mind acts through this activity, and it takes both mind and thought to make man. So, we must consider what man does as well as what man is. The Image of God does something. He cannot be idle, if God is not, because of the nature of His relation to God. Some settle down with the Image of God only (C.S.). They say man is Man is Life, Love, Substance, Intelligence and claim that is all there is. They go no further, hence claim there is no more. They ignore the likeness of God. Man must be active as well as passive in order to fully express God. There is a consequence from living Being. The upper half of the circle is not all there is of Creation. It is only one half. Man’s nature involves something. It takes both expression and manifestation to make Creation. Expression is one half, manifestation is the other half. The earth is potential in the Heaven. The earth is the Lord’s, etc. Heaven is the harmonious whole, the Created, the Image of God, and as such expresses all that First Cause is, and does, if man is active from God, there must be product, of some kind. Mind is Creator. The Creator produces living things. Then “living “things” belong to God. Man’s action is not creative, but the consequence of the creative Power, not a part of it, but the full expression.
TruthUnity note: Note the distinction between expression (Image) and manifestation (likeness). Metaphysical religion is about transformation of the likeness (the lesser image) to the level of the expression (the greater image), thereby completing creation. The writer's reference to C.S. is undoubtably Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science, which held that material manifestation has no life.
The Creative Power is not lessened by its continued action through man’s power, nor are these two powers separated, but they are forever distinct. Man’s action can then create a living thing? No. Not a living thing, or a living Being. God creates. Man acts, but is not a creator. Man’s action is limited compared with God’s. Effect is like its Cause, but is less, and its “lessness” differentiates it from God. Man has the power to produce, but this product is not living. Our term for First Cause is Mind. Its activity is Thought, Its product, Idea, God’s Idea. If the Infinite Mind has Its Idea, why cannot that Idea have its idea? God produces man, and man in turn produces “a man” his own idea. Which is the greater, God’s Idea, or the idea of God’s Idea? Surely God’s Idea. Then the greater includes the lesser, which gives us the “lesser idea” in the Greater Idea, or the lesser image in the Image of God or the Greater. So God created man in his own image, in the Image of God, (“His own” refers to man). We change the punctuation, drop a comma, reading it according to logic. So “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He Him.” Then Man is in God, and man’s image is in himself, — the lesser within the greater. Now we have found how man was created, how he is the Image of God, What he is as such, and that there is nothing in creation that is higher than man. In Him, ws must look for everything as there is nothing outside of him, but God.
Man is not the product of evolution, but the beginning of it. Man is the living entity, that images God. This, I look upon with the natural eye, is shape. I see it. Which is greater, the object seen, or that which sees it? Then I am in it, am I, or is it in me? New can you find “the image in the Image”? What is it? and where is it? It is shape, and is in man. God being absolute is always the same. Man being the expression of the Absolute, is always the same, but because of what I am as a living soul, I am free to have my own conception of myself.
I see this shape, but I am not it. I, that see it, am greater than it. Shape is the non-Ego. I in the real of Me an the true Ego. There is a difference which is an intellectual process of reasoning. It is one thing to have the power to do and quite another to do. One is unconscious or automatic, and the other is self-conscious or deliberate action.
TERMS AND THEIR MEANING AS APPLIED TO THE SCIENCE OF BEING
THE SCIENCE OF BEING: Knowledge of being, verified by correct thinking, reduced to law and embodied in system.
PRINCIPLE: THE permanent or fundamental cause that naturally or necessarily produces certain results. The source from which a thing proceeds. The power that acts continuously or uniformly. That which is inherent in anything, determining its nature.
EXPRESS: To set forth to have the understanding. To make the image of. To cause to resemble.
EXPRESSION: The image of that which is expressed. That which is set forth by its producing cause and which may be understood.
REPRESENT: To set forth a second time. To present anew.
REPRESENTATION: An image, model, picture.
MANIFEST: To make plain to sight or understanding. Free from obscurity or doubt. Clear, obvious.
MANIFESTATION: That which is free from obscurity or doubt, — that which is clear to sight and obvious to understanding.
ABSOLUTE: Opposed to relative, to phenomenal. Free from mental limitations, from liability to change. Subsistent, underived, ultimate.
RELATIVE: Characterized by relation to something. Having connection with an antecedent.
MIND: The All. The circumference of Cause which includes all effects. The absolute to which effects are relative. That which is inherently active, incapable of choice. The aspect of Spirit as the initial impulse or motor for all things.
SPIRIT: Primal, subsistent, underived Substance. First Cause. Principle.
THOUGHT: Mind in action. The primal energy constantly generated by that motor. Antecedent motion for all living things. The force which produces ideas.
UNIT: One. The invisible whole. Principle.
NUMBER: Expression of the unit. Nature of the unit set forth in form. The subject having estimable value. Invisible.
FIGURE: The object. The shape representing the subject. Visible. Having value only through its relativity to number.
LIFE: The vital aspect of Spirit as the principle embracing the origin and growth without change of identify, of living beings and things.
LOVE: The aspect of Spirit revealing it as that Supreme Consciousness which has no place in connection with objects that merely minister to the senses. Ceaseless attraction.
INTELLIGENCE: The formless, unlimited, absolute, and supreme primal Cause which involves the intelligent thing or being as its effect. That aspect of Spirit as the principle of the Ego which make the ego wise.
EGO: The “I” as distinct from the “not I” and from “mine.” That which is distinct from all objects of thought, and from its own states or possibilities.
INDIVIDUALITY: Oneness. The Ego. Not capable of being divided or separated into parts without losing identity.
SUBSTANCE: The elemental nature or substantiality of the immaterial spiritual being. The essence of the Ego.
THE SPIRITUAL BEING: The Existent and Relative to Infinite Mind. Mind’s immediate and direct effect. The Ego. The Lord.
SELF: Consciousness of personal identity.
SOUL: Incarnate consciousness of personal identity which is subject to qualification. That which is distinct, but not separate from both body and the Ego.
PERSONALITY: SOUL AND BODY. These are distinct, but not separate.
INNER PERSONALITY: Embodied soul. Invisible.
OUTER PERSONALITY: Physical body. Visible.
SUBJECTIVE: That which belongs to, or proceeds from thinking subject.
OBJECTIVE: Pertaining to the object perceptible to the thinking subject.
THINKING POWER: The Man-Power. The power derived directly from Mind, and through which Primal Energy, the God-Power is differentiated. Its action is automatic, but it can be consciously directed, (its qualities) It qualifies sensation. Transferred Energy.
CONSCIOUS THINKING: Dissipated Energy.
PERFECTED SOUL: Ultimated or embodied Energy.
COSMIC MATTER: Is what is “through” Individualization, and Human Energy is “from” it.
HUMAN ENERGY: Is individual, and Cosmic Matter is universal. Both are necessary to the completeness and the ultimate of Nature.
SCIENCE IS ABSOLUTE: Religion is relative. With religion we have faith; with Science we have knowledge. With the unity of faith and Knowledge, ALL things are possible unto us.
LIVING SOUL: As its nature is taught in Genesis, has its seven stages or colors, each stage being a “day” which has its personification or type in the characters of the book. These characters follow each other and bear the relation to each other that belongs to the colors in the white ray. Adam, — Red; Enos, — Orange; Noah, — yellow; Abraham, — Green; Isaac, — Blue; Jacob — Indigo; — Joseph, — Violet.
