Our reasoning thus far is on solid ground, and our conclusions, as far as we have gone, cannot be gainsaid. But we still have to find the reason why the life of man does cast a shadow; or why the light of divine being does not pass through the human being. True, a number of the rays of that light do pass through the nature of many, and there are not a few who are approaching spiritual transparence, or who are on the verge of such transparence at frequent intervals. The lives of these are, at certain periods, almost like windows, through which we discern quite distinctly the majestic glory of the spiritual side of existence. That spiritual transparence can be attained, is being attained by a constantly growing number, we know therefore full well; but before this attainment can be completed by the few and made possible by the many, we must know the original cause of the shadow.

It is evident that the life of man cannot become transparent so long as he thinks in the shadow; and he will think more or less in the shadow so long as he believes the shadow to be real; for the truth is that we shape our thoughts largely after those things we believe to be real; and also, what we believe to be real we make a part of our own minds. Thus the shadow has come into the mind of man, due to the fact that he has considered the shadow, believed in it, thought of it as real because it was always with him.

But we can well understand that no mind can think clearly so long as there are shadows in that mind. Under such conditions thinking would be confused; and it is impossible for the light to pass through a confused mind. Thus the mind, by believing in the shadow, and by making the shadow a part of itself, becomes instrumental in producing that very condition in the life of man that casts a shadow, or that prevents the divine light from passing through. In other words, the windows of such a mind will not be clear; they will not transmit the light. And the atmosphere of such a mind will be shadowy and dense, so that the mental sky will be overcast, more or less, with dark and heavy clouds. The light therefore cannot pass through, and the life of that man will cast a shadow.

From these facts we learn how man, through his recognition of the shadow, making it more or less a part of his mind, actually perpetuates in himself those very conditions that caused his life to cast a shadow in the first place. But why did his life cast a shadow in the first place? Simply because he did not understand the light when he first came up into the light. He came up from simple states of consciousness; in fact, from the darkness, and therefore could not think in the language of light the very moment he came into the light.

Man was not created a finished being. He was created with certain powers and possibilities - all of them marvelous and limitless; but he was left free to use his gifts in the making of himself, in the unfoldment of what was inherent in his nature, in the finishing of that remarkable piece of work that the Supreme had, through the laws of nature, begun in him. We realize therefore that man could not, at first, be in the spiritual light. He came up gradually into this light, and earned every step of the way. But as he came into the light he naturally would be ignorant of the nature of that light, and in consequence would form many wrong conclusions, which in turn would confuse the mind. And as a confused mind does not transmit the light, his life would at the very beginning cast a shadow. Besides, his mind would be literally filled with imperfections as he came up in the scale; in brief, he was, in a sense, crude in his mental nature when he began to awaken to his birthright, and a crude mental nature will not transmit the light, but will instead cast a shadow.

We clearly understand therefore how the life of man came to cast a shadow as he began to rise from darkness into light; and we can naturally understand how this shadow came to attract his attention; how he came to think of it as real; and how he came to make it more and more a part of his own mentality, thereby confusing the mind and perpetuating those very conditions in himself which caused his life to cast a shadow in the first place. In this way then evil has continued; but it has continued only as a shadow, and has caused pain and sorrow in the world in this way, that by attracting the attention of man it has prevented him from doing all his thinking in the light. And thinking that is not in the light will naturally produce conditions that are incompatible with living in the light. Wherever we live, all conditions must be in harmony with the sphere in which we live. If we live in the dark, all our conditions will be of the darkness and cannot confuse each other. But if we live in the light we cannot permit conditions that come from the darkness or there will be confusion and disorder, which mean pain, sorrow and tribulation.

The problem of evil therefore resolves itself into this, that since man is now in the light he must live wholly for the light, giving no thought whatever to darkness or to the shadow that may follow his life for a time. He must begin now to think wholly in the light; and by doing this his mind will soon become so harmonious and clear that the divine light will pass through; in brief, he will become spiritually transparent and his life will not cast any shadow any more.

If we are casting a shadow, be it very dark or very faint, we are obstructing the light to that extent, and thereby interfering with the best welfare of the world. Besides, we are not fulfilling our purpose in life; for we are not here simply to see the light; we must also transmit light; therefore, to eliminate the shadow must become one of our leading aims in life; and to begin, we must consider the cause of the shadow first, and then means through which it may be removed.

We find that the cause of the shadow is found in confused thinking - thinking partly in the light and partly in the dark; and we find that we think in the dark much of the time because we believe the shadow to be real. Therefore, at the very outset we must refuse absolutely to think of the shadow as real. We must know that it is nothing but a shadow, and that it will disappear the very moment we begin to think wholly in the light.