146 THE GREAT SECRET
systematically adopts Descartes’ uncertainty.
‘I think, therefore I am’, he says with Descartes.
But do not go so quickly. Ask him, ‘Do you feel that you exist?
‘I believe I exist’ the sceptic will reply, and so his first word is a word of faith.
‘I believe I exist, because it seems to me that I am thinking.’ If you believe something and if it seems to be something to you, this is because you exist. So something exists, what we call ‘bein’ exists; hut everything is chaotic for you, nothing mamlests itself harmoniously as yet and your spirit wavers in doubt as if it were floating on the waters.
it appears to you that you are thinking. Dare to say so clearly and boldly. You will dare if that is what you wish; thinking is the light of our souls; do not contend against the divine
?henomenon which is going on in you; open your inner eyes; say Let there be light’ and it will be for you. Thought is impossible
in absolute doubt and if you admit thought you admit truth. Besides, you are really compelled to admit it, for you cannot deny ‘being’. Truth is the affirmation of that which is and, in spite of yourself, you will find it necessary to distinguish it from the affirmation of that which is not, or the negation of that which is, the two formulas of error.
Keep silence now, and let us meditate in the darkness which gives us rest! You have just performed the intellectual.creation proper to your first day! Now we must risc, for here is a new dawn! ‘Being’ exists and ‘being’ thinks. Truth exists, reality is an obvious (ct, judgement is a necessity, reason assumes form and justice is indispensable.
Now go on to admit that ‘being’ has life. No proof is required for this. Obey your inner voice and take command ol your sophistries; say, ‘I will this to be’ and it will be, for already quite independently of you it has to be and it is. Well, life is evidenced by movement, and the movement which occurs is conserved by eui1ibrium. Balanced movement is the separaton between and relative equ1ality of the alternate and opposite impulses of force. The first day has shown what substance is like, and the second day now reveals that force is dual. This double force, in its alternate and reciprocal impulses, constitutes the firmament or universal firmness of everytling which moves according to the
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