But there is no such necessity, or compulsion, in the case of the question of Creation from Nothingness.  On the contrary, the necessity and compulsion is all the other way.  Not only is the Reason unable to think of Creation from Nothing—­not only does all its laws forbid it to hold such a conception—­but, more than this, it finds within itself a conception, full-grown and potent, which contradicts this idea.  It finds within itself the strong certainty that Whatever Really Is has Always Been, and that all transient and finite shapes, forms, and manifestations, must proceed from that which is Real, Infinite, Causeless, and Infinite—­and moreover must be composed of the substance of that Reality, for there is nothing else Real from which they could have been composed; and their composition from Nothing is unthinkable, for Nothing is Nothing, and always will be Nothing.  “Nothing” is merely a name of denial of existence—­an absolute denial of substantiality of any degree, kind or form—­an absolute denial of Reality.  And from such could come only Nothing—­from Nothing, Nothing comes.

Therefore, finding within itself the positive report that All, and Anything There Is, must be composed of the Substance of the Reality, the Reason is compelled to think that the Universe is composed of the Substance of the One Reality—­whether we call that One Reality, by the name of The Absolute; or whether we call it God. We must believe that from this Absolute-God all things in the Universe have flown out, or been emanated, rather than created—­begotten, rather than “made."

This does not mean the Pantheistic idea that the Universe is God—­but rather that God, while existing separate and apart from His Universe, in his Essence, and Being, is nevertheless in His Universe, and His Universe in Him.  And this, no matter what conception of God or Deity is had—­or whether one thinks of The Absolute as Principle.  The Truth is the same—­Truth no matter by what names it is called, or by what misconception it is surrounded.  The Truth is that One is in All, and All is in One—­such is the report of the highest Reason of Man—­such is the report of the Illumined—­such is the Highest Teachings that have come down to the race from the great souls that have trodden The Path of Attainment.

And now let us submit the Yogi Philosophy to these conceptions, and reports of the Reason.  And let us discover just what more the Yogi Philosophy has to say concerning the nature of the Substance of the Divine, which infills all Life—­and how it solves the Riddle of the Sphinx, concerning the One in All; and All in One.  We hope to show you that the Riddle is capable of solution, and that the old Yogi teachers have long ago grasped that for which the human mind has ever sought.  This phase of the Teachings is the highest, and it is usually hinted at, rather than expressed, in the writings