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Having now
obtained a glimpse of the adaptation of the physical organism to the
action of the mind we must next realize that the mind itself is an
organism which is in like manner adapted to the action of a still higher
power, only here the adaptation is one of mental faculty. As with other
invisible forces all we can know of the mind is by observing what it does,
but with this difference, that since we ourselves are this mind,
our observation is an interior observation of states of consciousness. In
this way we recognize certain faculties of our mind, the working order of
which I have considered at page 84; but the point to which I would now
draw attention is that these faculties always work under the influence of
something which stimulates them, and this stimulus may come either from
without through the external senses, or from within by the consciousness
of something not perceptible on the physical plane. Now the recognition of
these interior sources of stimulus to our mental faculties, is an
important branch of Mental Science, because the mental action thus set up
works just as accurately through the physical correspondences as those
which start from the recognition of external facts, and therefore the
control and right direction of these inner perceptions is a matter of the
first moment.
The faculties
most immediately concerned are the intuition and the imagination, but it
is at first difficult to see how the intuition, which is entirely
spontaneous, can be brought under the control of the will. Of course, the
spontaneousness of the intuition cannot in any way be interfered with, for
if it ceased to act spontaneously it would cease to be the intuition. Its
province is, as it were, to capture ideas from the infinite and present
them to the mind to be dealt with at its discretion. In our mental
constitution the intuition is the point of origination and, therefore, for
it to cease to act spontaneously would be for it to cease to act at all.
But the experience of a long succession of observers shows that the
intuition can be trained so as to acquire increased sensitiveness in some,
particular direction, and the choice of the general direction is
determined by the will of the individual.
It will be found
that the intuition works most readily in respect to those subjects which
most habitually occupy our thought; and according to the physiological
correspondences which we have been considering this might be accounted for
on the physical plane by the formation of brain-channels specially adapted
for the induction in the molecular system of vibrations corresponding to
the particular class of ideas in question. But of course we must remember
that the ideas themselves are not caused by the molecular changes but on
the contrary are the cause of them; and it is in this translation of
thought action into physical action that we are brought face to face with
the eternal mystery of the descent of spirit into matter; and that though
we may trace matter through successive degrees of refinement till it
becomes what, in comparison with those denser modes that are most
familiar, we might call a spiritual substance, yet at the end of it it is
not the intelligent thinking principle itself. The criterion is in the
word “vibrations.” However delicately etheric the substance its movement
commences by the vibration of its particles, and a vibration is a wave
having a certain length, amplitude, and periodicity, that is to say,
something which can exist only in terms of space and time; and as soon as
we are dealing with anything capable of the conception of measurement we
may be quite certain that we are not dealing with Spirit but only with one
of its vehicles. Therefore although we may push our analysis of matter
further and ever further back—and on this line there is a great deal of
knowledge to be gained—we shall find that the point at which spiritual
power or thought-force is translated into etheric or atomic vibration will
always elude us. Therefore we must not attribute the origination of ideas
to molecular displacement in the brain, though, by the reaction of the
physical upon the mental which I have spoken of above, the formation of
thought-channels in the grey matter of the brain may tend to facilitate
the reception of certain ideas. Some people are actually conscious of the
action of the upper portion of the brain during the influx of an
intuition, the sensation being that of a sort of expansion in that brain
area, which might be compared to the opening of a valve or door; but all
attempts to induce the inflow of intuitive ideas by the physiological
expedient of trying to open this valve by the exercise of the will should
be discouraged as likely to prove injurious to the brain. I believe some
Oriental systems advocate this method, but we may well trust the mind to
regulate the action of its physical channels in a manner suitable to its
own requirements, instead of trying to manipulate the mind by the
unnatural forcing of its mechanical instrument. In all our studies on
these lines we must remember that development is always by perfectly
natural growth and is not brought about by unduly straining any portion of
the system.
The fact,
however, remains that the intuition works most freely in that direction in
which we most habitually concentrate our thought; and in practice it will
be found that the best way to cultivate the intuition in any particular
direction is to meditate upon the abstract principles of that
particular class of subjects rather than only to consider particular
cases. Perhaps the reason is that particular cases have to do with
specific phenomena, that is with the law working under certain limiting
conditions, whereas the principles of the law are not limited by
local conditions, and so habitual meditation on them sets our
intuition free to range in an infinitude where the conception of
antecedent conditions does not limit it. Anyway, whatever may be the
theoretical explanation, you will find that the clear grasp of abstract
principles in any direction has a wonderfully quickening effect upon the
intuition in that particular direction.
The importance of
recognizing our power of thus giving direction to the intuition cannot be
exaggerated, for if the mind is attuned to sympathy with the highest
phases of spirit this power opens the door to limitless possibilities of
knowledge. In its highest workings intuition becomes inspiration, and
certain great records of fundamental truths and supreme mysteries which
have come down to us from thousands of generations bequeathed by deep
thinkers of old can only be accounted for on the supposition that their
earnest thought on the Originating Spirit, coupled with a reverent worship
of It, opened the door, through their intuitive faculty, to the most
sublime inspirations regarding the supreme truths of the universe both
with respect to the evolution of the cosmos and to the evolution of the
individual. Among such records explanatory of the supreme mysteries three
stand out pre-eminent, all bearing witness to the same ONE Truth, and each
throwing light upon the other; and these three are the Bible, the Great
Pyramid, and the Pack of Cards—a curious combination some will think, but
I hope in another volume of this series to be able to justify my present
statement. I allude to these three records here because the unity of
principle which they exhibit, notwithstanding their wide divergence of
method, affords a standing proof that the direction taken by the intuition
is largely determined by the will of the individual opening the mind in
that particular direction.
Very closely
allied to the intuition is the faculty of imagination. This does not mean
mere fancies, which we dismiss without further consideration, but our
power of forming mental images upon which we dwell. These, as I have said
in the earlier part of this book, form a nucleus which, on its own plane,
calls into action the universal Law of Attraction, thus giving rise to the
principle of Growth. The relation of the intuition to the imagination is
that the intuition grasps an idea from the Great Universal Mind, in which
all things subsist as potentials, and presents it to the
imagination in its essence rather than in a definite form, and then our
image-building faculty gives it a clear and definite form which it
presents before the mental vision, and which we then vivify by letting our
thought dwell upon it, thus infusing our own personality into it, and so
providing that personal element through which the specific action of the
universal law relatively to the particular individual always takes
place.[1] Whether our thought shall be allowed thus to dwell upon a
particular mental image depends on our own will, and our exercise of our
will depends on our belief in our power to use it so as to disperse or
consolidate a given mental image; and finally our belief in our power to
do this depends on our recognition of our relation to God, Who is the
source of all power; for it is an invariable truth that our life will take
its whole form, tone, and color from our conception of God, whether that
conception be positive or negative, and the sequence by which it does so
is that now given.
In this way,
then, our intuition is related to our imagination, and this relation has
its physiological correspondence in the circulus of molecular vibrations I
have described above, which, having its commencement in the higher or
“ideal” portion of the brain flows through the voluntary nervous system,
the physical channel of objective mind, returning through the sympathetic
system, the physical channel of subjective mind, thus completing the
circuit and being then restored to the frontal brain, where it is
consciously modelled into clear-cut forms suited to a specific purpose.
In all this the
power of the will as regulating the action both of the intuition and the
imagination must never be lost sight of, for without such a central
controlling power we should lose all sense of individuality; and hence the
ultimate aim of the evolutionary process is to evolve individual wills
actuated by such beneficence and enlightenment as shall make them fitting
vehicles for the outflowing of the Supreme Spirit, which has hitherto
created cosmically, and can now carry on the creative process to its
highest stages only through conscious union with the individual; for this
is the only possible solution of the great problem, How can the Universal
Mind act in all its fulness upon the plane of the individual and
particular?
This is the
ultimate of evolution, and the successful evolution of the individual
depends on his recognizing this ultimate and working towards it; and
therefore this should be the great end of our studies. There is a
correspondence in the constitution of the body to the faculties of the
soul, and there is a similar correspondence in the faculties of the soul
to the power of the All-originating Spirit; and as in all other
adaptations of specific vehicles so also here, we can never correctly
understand the nature of the vehicle and use it rightly until we realize
the nature of the power for the working of which it is specially adapted.
Let us, then, in conclusion briefly consider the nature of that power. |
