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Part 19 · Appearances Are Deceptive · points 7–12 of 29 in this Part

The same law in every department

Mind is the real and eternal. Matter is forever changing form.

6 numbered points · 2 study questions · 3 min read

The one line to keep

Mind is the real and eternal. Matter is forever changing form.

The law of polarity — two poles, one thing — appears in the mental world, the moral world, the spiritual world and the animal kingdom alike. Haanel's conclusion from all of it: mind is the real and the eternal; matter is what keeps changing shape. We are always in the presence of change, and knowing that changes what you can expect from any frozen-seeming situation, including your own.
Why this matters — Part 19
If you are convinced that your life as it looks right now is simply the verdict, this is for you. Every human being who ever changed their circumstances did it first by refusing to accept appearances as final. The earth looked flat to everyone who agreed with their eyes. Your situation looks final to everyone who agrees with their circumstances. Refuse the verdict, and get to work on the cause.

Study questions for this sublevel

Haanel put a review question at the end of every part. Answer out loud first — the recall is what moves it into memory.

183. What is the one creative Principle in the physical, mental and spiritual world?

The Universal Mind, or the Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.

184. How are we related to this creative Principle?

By our ability to think.

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Haanel's own words — points 7–12

Quoted exactly from The Master Key System (1912, public domain). The translation above is ours; this is his.

7

In the mental world we find the same law; we speak of knowledge and ignorance, but ignorance is only a lack of knowledge and is therefore found to be simply a word to express the absence of knowledge; it has no principle in itself.

8

In the Moral World we again find the same law; we speak of good and evil, but Good is a reality, something tangible, while Evil is found to be simply a negative condition, the absence of Good. Evil is sometimes thought to be a very real condition, but it has no principle, no vitality, no life; we know this because it can always be destroyed by Good; just as Truth destroys Error and light destroys darkness, so Evil vanishes when Good appears; there is therefore but one principle in the Moral World.

9

We find exactly the same law obtaining in the Spiritual world; we speak of Mind and Matter as two separate entities, but clearer insight makes it evident that there is but one operative principle and that is Mind.

10

Mind is the real and the eternal. Matter is forever changing; we know that in the eons of time a hundred years is as but a day. If we stand in any large city and let the eye rest on the innumerable large and magnificent buildings, the vast array of modern automobiles, cellular telephones, the electric lights, and all the other conveniences of modern civilization, we may remember that not one of them was there just over a century ago, and if we could stand on the same spot in a hundred years from now, in all probability we should find that but few of them remained.

11

In the animal kingdom we find the same law of change. The millions and millions of animals come and go, a few years constituting their span of life. In the plant world the change is still more rapid. Many plants and nearly all grasses come and go in a single year. When we pass to the inorganic, we expect to find something more substantial, but as we gaze on the apparently solid continent, we are told that it arose from the ocean; we see the giant mountain and are told that the place where it now stands was once a lake; and as we stand in awe before the great cliffs in the Yosemite Valley we can easily trace the path of the glaciers which carried all before them.

12

We are in the presence of continual change, and we know that this change is but the evolution of the Universal Mind, the grand process whereby all things are continually being created anew, and we come to know that matter is but a form which Mind takes and is therefore simply a condition. Matter has no principle; Mind is the only principle.

Put it to work

This week's exercise

Absorbed Attention (Part Nineteen)

Usual seat, relaxed, calm.

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Sit with it

Guided stillness timer

The sit is the whole foundation of the course: still body, watched breath, no phone. Pick five minutes if fifteen feels like a hill.

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Keep going

Part 19 · Appearances Are Deceptive

Your current situation is not the truth about you