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4
THE PRACTICAL DHARMA
functioning of the different substances and elements, it follows that no starting point can be discovered for a general commencement of the universe. This amounts to saying that the idea of a creation is altogether untenable in philosophy.
The first two of the tattvas deal with the nature and enumeration of the eternal realities, elements or substances of nature, and the remaining five with the interaction between two of these substances, namely, spirit and matter.
As explained in The Key of Knowledge,' every spirit is a god in potency and may become one in actuality if it exert itself in the right direction. This right direction constitutes the path of religion, which prescribes a scientifically exact method of destroying the causes which stand in the way of the realisation, hence the manifestation of the natural Divinity of the soul.
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