The Impersonal Life
Chapter 8 –
MY IDEA
Author: Joseph Benner
1914
MY IDEA
You have been told that the Earth and all things belonging to it are but the outer manifestations of My Idea,
which is now in the process of being thought into perfect expression.
You have been shown that My Idea is responsible for all created things, and that It is both the Cause and
the Reason for all manifestations, yourself and your brothers and sisters included, all of which have been
thought into existence by Me, the One Original Thinker and Creator.
We will now trace the course of that Idea from the beginning, through Its various stages of Earth expression,
as well as the process of My Thinking that Idea into its present state of manifestation.
In the beginning, at the dawn of a new Cosmic Day, when the Word consciousness was just awakening and
the stillness of Cosmic Night yet prevailed, I The THINKER, conceived My Idea.
This My Idea of My Self in manifestation in a new condition, called Earth expression, I saw completely
pictured in the mirror of My Omniscient Mind. In this mirror I saw the real Earth shining forth brilliantly in the
Cosmos, — a perfect Sphere, where all the Infinite phases, attributes and powers of My Divine Nature were
finding perfect expression through the medium of Angels of Light, living Messengers of My Will, My Word
in the Flesh, even as It is in the Celestial World of the Eternal.
I saw My Self manifesting outwardly as Nature, and My Life as the vivifying and evolving Principle back of
all Manifestation. I saw Love, the Divine Creative Power, as the animating and vitalizing Force back of all
Life, and My Desire to give perfect expression to that Love as the Potential and Real Cause and Reason
of the birth of My Idea.
All this I saw mirrored in My All-seeing and All-knowing Mind, which could see and reflect only the Soul of
things or their Reality. Therefore this that I saw pictured in My Mind was the Real Earth, in fact, its beginning,
its conception into Cosmic being.
Now, My Consciousness is the inner essence of all Space and all Life. It is the real Substance of My Allcomprehending
and All-including Mind, whose informing and vitalizing Center is everywhere and Its limit and
circumference nowhere. Within the realm of My Mind alone I live and move and have My Being. It both
contains and fills all things, and Its every vibration and manifestation is but the expression of some phase
of My Be-ing.
Be-ing is ex-pressing or out-pressing. You cannot imagine be-ing without expression.
Therefore, I, All that
is, AM expressing, constantly and continuously expressing.
Expressing what?
What else could I express, if I AM All that Is, but My Self?
You cannot yet see or comprehend when I inspire you with an Idea.
Therefore, if I AM All there is, that Idea, which is direct from Me, must be part of or a phase of My Self in
Being or Expression.
Any Idea, once born within the realm of My Mind, as has been shown, immediately becomes a Reality, for
in the Eternality of My Being Time is not. With you, however, an Idea first creates Desire, a desire to express
that Idea; then Desire compels Thinking, Thinking causes Action, and Action produces Results — the Idea
in actual outer manifestation.
In Reality I have no Desire, for I AM All Things, and All Things are of Me. I need only to think and Speak
the Word to produce results.
Yet that Desire you feel in you is from Me, because it is born of My Idea, which I implanted in your mind only
that It might come forth into expression through you. Indeed, whatever you desire is I, knocking at the door
of your mind, announcing My Purpose of manifesting My Self in you or through you in the particular form
indicated by that Desire.
What is called Desire in human personalities, is but the necessary Action of My Will pushing forth the
expression of My Idea into outer Manifestation or Being.
What to you would seem to be in Me a desire for expression, is but the Necessity of My Idea of My Self to
Be, or Express Itself.
Therefore, every real desire you feel, every desire of your heart, comes from Me and must of necessity
sometime, in some shape or other, be fulfilled.
However, as I have no Desire, because I AM All Things, once this Idea of expressing My Self in this new
condition was born, I had but to think, that is, to concentrate or focus My Attention upon My Idea and Will
It to come forth into expression, or, as is told in My other Revelation, to Speak the Creative Word, and at
once did the Cosmic Forces of My BE-ing, set in vibration by the concentrating of My Will, proceed to attract
the necessary elements from the eternal storehouse of My Mind, and, with My Idea as a nucleus, to combine,
form and shape around It these elements into what is called a thought-form of a planet, filling it with My Life
Substance — My Consciousness — and endowing it with all the potentialities of My Being.
This act of thinking produced only a vitalized thought-form of a planet, and its manifestation was still in a
nebulous state in the thought realm.
From a thought-form, however, the quickening power of the Idea within, with My Will focused upon It,
proceeded to mold, fashion and gradually to solidify into material form the various elements of Life Substance;
until My Idea finally shone forth in substantial manifestation in the world of visible forms as the planet Earth,
a medium ready for living expression, and now capable of both containing and expressing Me.
This was the material body prepared by My Thinking, in which already dwelt all the potential nature of My
Being, by reason of the informing power of My Idea within.
The next stage was the developing and preparing of avenues or mediums through which I could express
the manifold phases, possibilities and powers of My Idea.
The outward evidence of this was what is known as the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, which,
each in turn, as it came into manifestation, gradually unfolded higher and more complex states of consciousness
that enabled Me more and more clearly to express the infinite phases and variety of My Nature.
It was at this stage that I looked upon My Creation, as stated in My other Revelation, and saw that It was
good;
But there yet remained the final and culminating medium of expression.
Up to this point, while each perfectly expressed some phase of My Nature, yet all existing mediums and
avenues were unconscious of Me, and were mediums of expression only as a wire is a medium for conducting
heat, light and power.
The conditions were ripe, however, for the creation of mediums through which My Divine Attributes could
find conscious expression, conscious not only of their relationship to Me, but of their ability and power to
express My Idea.
It was at this moment in Time that You and Your Brothers and Sisters were born into existence as human
expressions, coming into manifestation as you did, similarly with all other mediums, in response to My
concentrated Thought, in which I saw all the infinite variety of My Attributes in actual expression in entitized
forms, each manifesting in predominance some particular phase of My Being, and each conscious of Me,
Its Creator and Expressor.
I saw You in perfect expression, even as I see You now — the Real You, an Attribute of My Self — perfect.
For in Reality You are an Angel of Light, one of My Thought Rays, an Attribute of My Being, ensouled in
Earth conditions, with no other purpose (which is no purpose at all, but a necessity of My Being) but the final
complete expression of My Idea.
In the Eternal there is no Time, or Space, or Individuality, and it is only by reason of the phenomenon of
Thought being born from the womb of Mind into the world of Matter that the illusions of Time, Space and
Individuality occur; the thought, or Creature, acquiring the consciousness of separateness from its Thinker
or Creator.
So it was then that the first tendency to think yourself as separate from Me was born. The complete
consciousness of separation did not become established until long after.
In the beginning, when You thus first entered into Earth expression, obeying the impulse I had sent forth
through My concentrated Thought, You, one of My Attributes, surrounded or clothed Your Self with My Idea
of My Self in expression as the particular Attribute You represented. You being the animating Force of that
Idea.
In other words, My Idea of My Self expressing that particular Attribute then became the Soul of Your particular
expression. But that Idea or Soul is not You, remember, for You are really a part of Me, being My Self in
expression through the medium of that particular Attribute.
Having clothed Your Self with My Idea, this Idea then, through the necessity of Its be-ing, immediately began
to attract to Itself the necessary Thought Substance requisite for the expression of that particular Attribute,
and to build and shape it into My Image and Likeness. It thus became a Holy Temple, filled with My living
Presence, because inhabited by You, one of My Divine Attributes.
This Temple, being in My Image and Likeness, and composed of My Thought Substance, surrounding and
clothing My Idea, is consequently your Real body.
It is therefore indestructible, immortal, perfect. It is My
complete, imagined (imaged in) Thought, containing My Living Essence, awaiting the time when it can come
into outer expression and take on material form.
So now we have,
- First, I AM, expressing as You, one of My Divine Attributes;
- Second, My Idea of You, one of My Attributes, expressing in Earth conditions — or Your Soul;
- Third, My Imaged Thought of You, forming the Temple of Your Soul — or Your Soul Body in which You dwell.
These three make up the Divine or Impersonal part of You, the Immortal Three-in-One — You, My latent yet
completely formulated thought, shaped in My Image and Likeness, as yet unquickened, and therefore having
no connection with your human personality, which has not yet been born.