“Man is still new. He is barely out of the dark of his jungle. For the million or more years of his unfolding he has relied upon sensation for his actions and the evidence of his senses for his knowing. He has been aware of the spirit in him only a very few thousands of years. In this beginning of his new awareness he is confused, knowing not which is Mind in him, which is conscious- ness in him and which is sensation.
He has not yet learned that bodies are but Self-created mechanisms which manifest their centering Self, and that Self manifests God as One with it. Likewise he has not yet learned that bodies neither live nor die, but repeat themselves continuously and forever as all idea of Mind likewise repeats itself.
The wheel, for example, is a mechanism consisting of a hub, spokes and a rim. A little part of the wheel touches the ground, feels it, then leaves it, to disappear from reach of the sensations which connect rim, spokes and ground. But then it reappears.
When that happens to man we say, "He was born, lived and died." When it happens to the apple, the flame,, or the tree, we say, "The apple was eaten, the flame has gone out and the tree has decayed." We say that because only a small part of the cycle of any idea comes within the range of our senses. The larger part of the cycle is beyond our range of perception, just as the larger part of the wheel is beyond the sensed perception of the ground.
We do not yet know that the invisible part of the cycles of all idea is as continuous as the wheel is continuous. The cycle of the apple is light reaching from the sun and earth to that positive half of the apple cycle which we hold in our hand. The negative half of the cycle is light returning to sun and earth for repetition as another manifestation of the eternal idea of the apple. The same is true of the flame, the tree or any other part of the One Whole Idea of Creation.