The Mahdi Times The Mahdi Times Issue #26 January 2015 | Page 99

for what could THE ALL gain
that it did not already
possess? Others have sought
the answer in the idea that
THE ALL "wished something to
love" and others that it created
for pleasure or amusement or
because it "was lonely" or to
manifest its power - all puerile
explanations and ideas,
belonging to the childish
period of thought.
Others have sought to explain
the mystery by assuming that
THE ALL found itself
"compelled" to create, by
reason of its own "internal
nature" - its "creative instinct".
This idea is in advance of the
others, but its weak point lies
in the idea of THE ALL being
"compelled" by anything,
internal or external. If its
"internal nature" or "creative
instinct" compelled it to do
anything, then the "internal
nature" or "creative instinct"
would be the Absolute, instead
of THE ALL and so accordingly
that part of the proposition
falls. And, yet, THE ALL does
create and manifest and seems
to find some kind of
satisfaction in so doing.
And it is difficult to escape the
conclusion that in some

infinite degree it must have
what would correspond to an
"inner nature" or "creative
instinct" in man with
correspondingly infinite
Desire and Will. It could not
act unless it Willed to Act and
it would not Will to Act unless
it Desired to Act and it would
not Desire to Act unless it
obtained some Satisfaction
thereby. And all of these
things would belong to an
"Inner Nature" and might be
postulated as existing
according to the Law of
Correspondence. But, still, we
prefer to think of THE ALL as
acting entirely FREE from any
influence, internal as well as
external. That is the problem
which lies at the root of
difficulty - and the difficulty
that lies at the root of the
problem.