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Chapter 23 - LIFE. - p. 79
There is in each of us a potential Something for expression --- The Something Within --- The plant of life --- No use trying to repress it, for develop it must --- Life has a meaning --- Growth, development and unfoldment --- The lesson of life.
There is in each of us a potential Something, pressing forth for expression and growth in the direction of ultimate Good --casting off sheath after sheath in its progressive development and unfoldment --- impelled by the impulse imparted by the Primal Cause --- attracted upward by the Absolute.
Failing to understand this impulse of the growing Something --- seeking relief from its steady pressure --- we look upon it as an intruder, and instead of allowing it to develop and grow naturally, we endeavor to kill it, or to train its growth after our own petty notions. We fail to see that this Something is like unto the plant which grows on steadily and surely, from seed to blossom, until its potentialities are fully expressed. We do not realize that this Plant of Life should be allowed to grow as does the lily, freely and without restraint, unfolding leaf after leaf, until the plant stands in its complete beauty, crowned with its divine flower.
We would train the plant into some fantastic shape --- dwarf it as the Chinese do the oak, that it may become the pretty ornament of the parlor instead of the noble monarch of the forest. We would have it grow our way, not according to the law of its being. We fancy that we know what is best for it, losing sight of the fact that deep down in the subconscious depths of its being reposes that which directs its every effort toward the Good --- forgetting that its attraction toward the Absolute is drawing it steadily and irresistibly in the right direction. We forget that the plant will fulfill these impulses so long as there remains in it one atom of life. The seed in the ground will express itself in its little shoot, often moving weights a thousand times heavier than itself in its efforts to reach the rays of the sun. The sapling may be bent and confined to the ground, but its branches, following the laws of its being will instinctively shoot upward. Restrict the growth of the plant, if you can, but, nevertheless, it will move along the lines of least resistance and (grow toward the sun, in spite of your efforts.
And so it is with the Plant of Life --- the Something within us. We are afraid to allow it to grow according to the laws of its being, but wish to model it and shape it in accordance with the theories of ourselves or others (more frequently the latter, for most of our ideas on the subject are borrowed). We seem to
