CHAPTER V

THE MENTAL UNIVERSE

"The Universe is Mental--held in the Mind of THE
ALL."--The Kybalion.

THE ALL is SPIRIT! But what is Spirit? This question cannot be answered,
for the reason that its definition is practically that of THE ALL, which
cannot be explained or defined. Spirit is simply a name that men give to
the highest conception of Infinite Living Mind--it means "the Real
Essence"--it means Living Mind, as much superior to Life and Mind as we
know them, as the latter are superior to mechanical Energy and Matter.
Spirit transcends our understanding, and we use the term merely that we
may think or speak of THE ALL. For the purposes of thought and
understanding, we are justified in thinking of Spirit as Infinite Living
Mind, at the same time acknowledging that we cannot fully understand it.
We must either do this or stop thinking of the matter at all.

Let us now proceed to a consideration of the nature of the Universe, as
a whole and in its parts. What is the Universe? We have seen that there
can be nothing outside of THE ALL. Then is the Universe THE ALL? No,
this cannot be, because the Universe seems to be made up of MANY, and is
constantly changing, and in other ways it does not measure up to the
ideas that we are compelled to accept regarding THE ALL, as stated in
our last lesson. Then if the Universe be not THE ALL, then it must be
Nothing--such is the inevitable conclusion of the mind at first thought.
But this will not satisfy the question, for we are sensible of the