to its own inherent qualities, and therefore we intuitively
recognize that we cannot transcend the sort of personality which is normal
according to the Law of Universal Mind. This thought is always at the back
of our mind and we cannot get away from it for the simple reason that it is
inherent in our mental constitution, because our mind is itself a product
of the Creative Process; and to suppose ourselves transcending the
possibilities contained in the Originating Mind would involve the absurdity
of supposing that we can get the greater out of the less.

Nevertheless there are some who try to do so, and their position is as
follows. They say in effect, I want to transcend the standard of humanity
as I see it around me. But this is the normal standard according to the Law
of the Universe, therefore I have to get above the Law of the Universe.
Consequently I cannot draw the necessary power from that Law, and so there
is nowhere else to get it except from myself. Thus the aspirant is thrown
back upon his own individual will as the ultimate power, with the result
that the onus lies on him of concentrating a force sufficient to overcome
the Law of the Universe. There is thus continually present to him a
suggestion of struggle against a tremendous opposing force, and as a
consequence he is continually subjecting himself to a strain which grows
more and more intense as he realizes the magnitude of the force against
which he is contending. Then as he begins to realize the inequality of the
struggle he seeks for extraneous aid, and so he falls back on various
expedients, all of which have this in common that they ultimately amount to
invoking the assistance of other individualities, not seeing that this
involves the same fallacy which has brought him to his present straits, the
fallacy, namely, of supposing that any individuality can develop a power
greater than that of the source from which itself proceeds. The fallacy is
a radical one; and therefore all efforts based upon it are fore-doomed to
ultimate failure, whether they take the form of reliance on personal force
of will, or magical rites, or austerity practised against the body, or
attempts by abnormal concentration to absorb the individual in the
universal, or the invocation of spirits, or any other method--the same
fallacy is involved in them all, that the less is larger than the greater.

Now the point to be noted is that the idea of transcending the present
condition