If a man persists in acknowledging his bodily self alone and in denying his spiritual self, he is not to be blamed for that. His experience of life has brought him to this point of utter materialism while his power of metaphysical reflection has not developed enough to carry him beyond it. He is to be pitied therefore, rather than blamed.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26659 – 13.21.4.141

BN – Z

They believe that matter has formed by itself its highest product—Man—who in turn has put forth his own highest product in Thought. The next step from this is to proclaim that man's happiness wholly depends upon his environment and not at all upon his inner life.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26661 – 13.21.4.143

BN – Z

Those who uphold the sunless idea that matter is the only thing, as well as those who would insert a ghostlike thing called mind into it, deride the mentalist's position. Yet they would shake their complacency if only they could get unstuck from the limitation and incompleteness of their views.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26664 – 13.21.4.146

BN – Z

It is important to note that "matter" has gone out of scientific thought but materialism has not gone out of popular life.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26665 – 13.21.4.147

BN – Z

That this World, so solid to our touch, so important to our lives, is "such stuff as dreams are made of," in Shakespeare's haunting phrase, is incredible to the ordinary shallow materialist, whether he be of a scientific or a pious mind. But then, we must allow that mentalism, even if true, is a bizarre, a staggering idea.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26667 – 13.21.4.149

BN – Z

The world rarely finds reality for it judges mostly by appearances and externals; hence the wide prevalence of materialism, whether it takes an open self-confessed form or a covert religio-hypocritical one.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26668 – 13.21.4.150

BN – Z

Half of our puzzling problems follow in the train of our naïve but erroneous belief that matter is itself an ultimate reality.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26669 – 13.21.4.151

UR_2.1 – ZZ – K

It is an extraordinary fact, and perhaps a paradoxical one, that he who states the simple scientific truth that the only objects man knows are mental ones, that is, ideas, is usually considered mad.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26671 – 13.21.4.153

BN – Z

Life extends far beyond the narrow domain of this our flesh. Those who deride this truth will live to learn strange and surprising things.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26672 – 13.21.4.154

BN – Z

The true picture of a man is to be seen in his mind and heart, not in his body. Yet the world generally believes in, and acts on, the very contrary of this truth.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26673 – 13.21.4.155

BN – Z

Those who are spiritually blind, who have never felt the attraction of any higher forces than those which affect the body's senses, may consider such belief to be fantastic.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26676 – 13.21.4.158

BN – Z

Those who have no better concept of consciousness than the usual one regard any other as a curiosity, as unnatural, and not as something which might be worth the trouble of investigating, much less of acquiring.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26677 – 13.21.4.159

BN – Z

He is still a materialist, however formally and outwardly religious, who does not believe or perceive the truth of mentalism, does not know that consciousness is apart from brain.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26678 – 13.21.4.160

BN – Z

The materialist who says that we humans come from nothing and that if there is an infinite being, a God, he is infinitely indifferent to us, is thinking only of the physical body.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Accepting the Truth

#26680 – 13.21.4.162

BN – Z

The time will come, and cannot be avoided, when both the new and the accumulated facts will force scientists to regard Mind as the real thing they have to deal with, and matter as a group of states of mind. But by that time they will be something more than mere scientists alone; they will be somewhat on the way to becoming philosophical scientists.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26682 – 13.21.4.164

BA11 – P – D

The belief that to touch a wooden stick is to touch matter is no longer good science. And it was physics, a science with its feet well on the solid ground, which brought about this striking change in outlook.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26683 – 13.21.4.165

BN – Z

When a mystical seer proclaimed on the basis of his own insight that the reality of the universe was not matter but mind, educated people could afford to disregard his proclamations. But when leading scientists themselves proclaimed it on the basis of verifiable facts and rational reflections, they could not help giving their confidence to it. Consequently, those who have seriously absorbed the latest knowledge have been falling away from intellectual materialism. It is indeed only the uneducated, the half-educated, the pseudo-educated, and the word-educated who today believe in this miserable doctrine.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26685 – 13.21.4.167

BN – ZZ – K1

Shankara's Snake-Rope illusion is out of date. Science provides better illustration based on facts of continuous experience instead of exceptional or occasional ones. Indians ignore the fact that a thousand years have travelled on and away since Shankara's time. Human intelligence has probed and discovered much. Modern evidence for mentalism is more solid today. The tremendous advance of knowledge since his time has shown that the substance of which this universe is made turns out to be no substance at all.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26687 – 13.21.4.169

BN – ZZ – K1

Science changes, its doctrines change, and its earlier approximations are replaced from time to time by more accurate points. We cannot hope to find an ultimate truth nowadays, when science itself is so rapidly on the march. There remains, however, one unfailing all-embracing fact which will forever remain true and which cannot possibly change. Indeed, every advance in experiment and theory made by enterprising scientists will only help to verify this grand discovery. What is it? It is that the whole world which every department of science is busily engaged in examining is nothing but an idea in the human mind. Physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, biology, and all the other sciences without a single exception are concerned solely with what is ultimately a thought or series of thoughts passing through human consciousness. Here, therefore, we possess a universal law which embraces the entire field in which science is operating. This is an ultimate truth which will stand immortal, when every other hypothesis formulated by science has perished through advancing knowledge.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26688E – 13.21.4.170

BN – ZEL1/1 – K1

The point of all this is that we do not have to swallow the incredible doctrine of the world's non-existence in order to deny its materiality. Science properly demands an explanation of the world. If it pushes this demand to the fullest possible extent, it comes to the same truth as philosophy, even though it be by a different way. The world is what it is, an appearance in the little mind; but behind both is Mind, the great unchangeable reality which transcends all human thought and touch and which alone is, was, and will be.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26689E – 13.21.4.171

A231220 – EL1/1

The tremendous implications of mentalism for science and metaphysics, its enormous significance for mysticism and religion will quietly come into prominence before this [20th] century closes.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26695 – 13.21.4.177

BN – X – K

Some scientists are approaching the position that the world is ultimately an idea in the mind of the beholder. What will follow? They must next proceed to the position that an idea has precisely the same value as any mental picture seen in dream and hence must be just as imaginary, which leads to the final position that the idea has no real permanent existence.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26696 – 13.21.4.178

BN – Z

The simple notion that the world is just a machine, that God is the mechanic who puts its parts together and that matter is the stuff he began with and used to make these parts, belongs to the primitive levels of scientific thinking. It is for those who are just beginning to form the conception of an orderly universe in their enthusiasm for the early discoveries of science.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26697 – 13.21.4.179

BN – Z

Matter is energy, pulsating as waves or formed into knots.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26698 – 13.21.4.180

BN – ZZ

If so-called matter consists of the energy of the electron, whether as wave or particle, where is its existence as solid substance? Quantum physics has so far unveiled the truth about matter.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26699 – 13.21.4.181

BN – ZZ

When there is no weight, no volume, no inertia to be found in the ultimate atom, where is "matter"? It is no longer existent. But was it ever existent? Obviously deep and sustained reflection upon this question could only turn a physicist into a metaphysicist—and that is not permissible! Science must remain science: having started with the dogma that it has nothing to do with metaphysics or religion it ends with it!

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26700 – 13.21.4.182

BN – Z

What we know by our senses alone has reality, wrote D'Holbach, the French Encyclopaedist "All is matter and force." He meant that matter was the real thing, and force was what pushed it about to take a variety of forms. But how did he know that matter was there? Was it not his own mind that told him so?

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26701 – 13.21.4.183

BN – Z

The universe cannot be explained by a few scientific theories, notions, laws, or discoveries. It is unimaginably complex. Even with the help of the most amazing equipment, instruments, apparati, science discovers the merest fraction of the facts about anything in the universe. But even more important is the very limited nature of the physical senses. They seem to report the existence of matter, to give us substance and reality, when what is, is an entirely different level—that of Mind.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26702 – 13.21.4.184

BN – Z

When he comes to understand on what are really scientific grounds that belief in the materiality of the world is groundless, he may come to a better tolerance of the Quest.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26704 – 13.21.4.186

BN – Z

Until lately, the education of medical students, their observation of mental consequences of physical conditions, and the general attitude of recent science led them into materialism and thence to agnosticism. But several factors have begun, or else will shortly begin, a reversal of this process.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26705 – 13.21.4.187

BN – Z

A medical scientist declared himself opposed to any association of physiology with psychology. It would only harm both, he believed. He said that no one knows the link between consciousness and matter. This statement is quite reasonable for anyone, materialist or religionist. Only the mentalist can solve the problem.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26706 – 13.21.4.188

BN – Z

Matter as an independent principle is non-existent, whether it be physical matter, ethereal matter, astral matter, or something else. All these are merely conceptions.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26707 – 13.21.4.189

BN – Z

The book of Sir James Jeans entitled 'Physics and Philosophy' reveals what is the actual case. He concludes, "As we pass from this phenomenal world of space and time to this substratum, we seem, in some way we do not understand, to be passing from materialism to mentalism and so possibly from matter to mind. . . . Modern physics has moved in the direction of mentalism."

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26708 – 13.21.4.190

BN – Z

Eddington went much farther in acceptance of mentalism than Jeans. He told science quite plainly that no satisfactory explanation of matter can be made without postulating mind.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26709 – 13.21.4.191

BN – Z

Matter, as an entity in itself, though so scientifically acceptable at the beginning of the nineteenth century, will be scientifically untenable at the end of the twenty-first century.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26713 – 13.21.4.195

BN – ZZ

Science has long known that matter is able to change into wave-like energy or particle-streamed energy. Philosophy comments that what you see, this world of objects and creatures, is not really what you think it is. It seems still, solid, stable, but all the time it is vibrating with unbelievable speed 'and we, the observers, with it'. Only when we penetrate the calm centre of being do we find the real stability, the true substance.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26714 – 13.21.4.196

BN – ZZ

There is nothing in these concepts that is essentially new, but parts of their restatement with the help of modern scientific knowledge inevitably are new.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26716 – 13.21.4.198

BN – ZZZ

No scientist knows what matter is in itself.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26718 – 13.21.4.200

BN – Z

The last outcome of all scientific research and metaphysical thinking is, and can only be, mentalism.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > The position of modern science

#26719 – 13.21.4.201

BN – Z

Hume rightly pointed out that the mind is a mere series of sensations but he wrongly concluded that the series is destitute of any connecting thread. He saw nothing in the world but momentary perceptions, and in perceptions he saw nothing at all. They arose and faded into a void. Thus it might be said of the Scottish thinker that his doctrine was a Nihilistic Idealism and his universe a meaningless one. "Everyone keeps at a distance," he complained. "I have exposed myself to the enmity of all metaphysicians and even theologians; and can I wonder at the insults I must suffer?"

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26724 – 13.21.4.206

BN – Z

Now the realist assigns a greater degree of reality to that world than to its observer, because he says it will be there even when the latter has passed away. The idealist, however, assigns all reality to the observer because the world cannot be known apart from the latter.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26727 – 13.21.4.209

BN – Z

Thought and the object of thought are one and the same.—Parmenides, the earliest Greek mentalist.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26728 – 13.21.4.210

BN – Z

The European thinkers who worked out the mentalistic basis of life with intellectual thoroughness—although not always with correctness—were German; Kant, Schopenhauer, Hartmann, Hegel, Schiller, and Fichte saw and taught that Mind was the primal reality and that the world was an idea in Mind.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26755 – 13.21.4.237

UR_3.2 – ZZ – K

When, some years ago, I stayed in an ashram in Western India and idly looked through the volumes on its library shelves, I found a highly abridged version of a work called 'Yoga Vasistha'; I realized that I had also found one of those Eastern writings which deserve Western readers too. That version had been made by an Indian scholar long before, had apparently never circulated beyond the Indian shores, and, try as I might, I could not secure another copy to take away with me. I think it had been privately published, but anyway it was out of print. The contents were so interesting that I never forgot the Sanskrit title. Now another and new abridgment is in my hands. Its reading has given me pleasurable hours,, interesting hours and thought-provoking hours. It is a book that should be also in the hands of every mentalist.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26764 – 13.21.4.246

BN – ZZZ

Denis Diderot, although himself a staunch materialist, had to confess that Idealism "is the most difficult to oppose" [because] "we never get outside ourselves." There was an English lawyer who offered a large financial prize to anyone who could successfully refute the tenets of Idealism. But the prize was never won, because no one was able to provide a satisfactory refutation. Mentalism includes most of Idealism but goes farther and explains more.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26770 – 13.21.4.252

BN – Z

Objective idealism is based on error. The error is that objects have an existence separate from the idea of them. If this were true, and he formed his idea of the object from the object itself, then it should be asked, "What is it that tells him there is an object outside?" It is the mind which tells this. But the mind can give him only a thought. Therefore the idea which he forms and the object which reveals itself to the mind are 'both' ideas.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26772 – 13.21.4.254

BN – Z

In his play 'The Tempest' Shakespeare has given clear expression to mentalism in the context of that famous line, "We are such stuff as dreams are made of."

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26782 – 13.21.4.264

BN – Z

Ariel: "Idealism has never been convincingly refuted. Bergson is the modern Idealist. All great philosophers have been idealists. Ideas are the only true things. That which is alone known is idea for it is that only which enters consciousness."

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26783 – 13.21.4.265

BN – Z

I did not work out the theory of mentalism intellectually until it had first been revealed to me mystically.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26791 – 13.21.4.273

BN – ZZZ

Many complained about my presentation of mentalism as being repetitious. Yet without such detailed reasoning and elaborate argument it would have been harder for the Western reader to understand, much more to accept, so unfamiliar a teaching.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26792 – 13.21.4.274

UR_2.9.1 – ZZ – K

A teaching like mentalism which does not agree with commonly accepted ideas must be carefully presented, for its very surprise may cause it to be deemed beyond, or not worth, discussion.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26793 – 13.21.4.275

BN – ZZ

There are so many different points of view from which we can approach one and the same Truth, many different aspects to it. The mentalistic approach which I have emphasized was presented to the public quite deliberately.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26794 – 13.21.4.276

BN – ZZ

The fundamental truth of the principle of mentalism is as clear to me as is the fundamental falsity of materialism.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26795 – 13.21.4.277

BN – ZZ

The deep mystical background of mentalism is mostly a feeling whereas the form in which it has to be expressed is mostly an intellectual one.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26796 – 13.21.4.278

BN – Z

The tenets expounded in my book 'The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga' are of a kind which become more understandable as they become more familiar. It is really their intellectual strangeness which accounts largely for their apparent absurdity. And this strangeness itself arises because mentalism was originally discovered through mystical experience and has had to be translated into non-mystical intellectual terms.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26797 – 13.21.4.279

BN – Z

To reach the masses with a doctrine as deep as mentalism is no little task, but this I have tried to do.

Mentalism > The Challenge of Mentalism > Mentalism and related doctrines

#26798 – 13.21.4.280

BN – ZZ

Because Mind has always and universally existed so has its associated aspect, Energy, or Life-Force. And because Mind connotes meaning and creates purpose, my life has a meaning and a purpose linked with the Universe's: it is neither empty nor alone. Hope, prayer, truth, and Presence are my birthright. I am entitled to them. But I must claim the right, make it my own through faith at first, and possibly through knowledge later.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26800 – 13.21.5.2

BN – Z

This invariable truth, that man does not exist in matter but in mind, blesses those who receive it. For it helps to console them in affliction, to guide them in meditation, and to illumine them in reflection.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26801 – 13.21.5.3

BN – Z

Perceive these two things now: the dreamlike character of life in the world, and the illusory character of the personal ego. Hence the need of the "What am I?" enquiry, that the illusion of the ego may be dispelled. When you can see these things clearly, then you may be still and undisturbed, unentangled, and unillusioned amid the struggle of life. You will be wise, free, impervious to the petty persecution of men—their lies, malice, and injuries—for being no longer identified with the personality, you are no longer their target.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26802 – 13.21.5.4

BN – Z

The doctrine will be his when feeling confirms what reason inculcates, when the figure and history of this world seem no more than a vivid thought in his mind.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26803 – 13.21.5.5

A251217 – Z – K

Why does time take the sharp edge from our griefs? The answer usually includes at least three factors—the subsistence of emotional reaction to it, its placing in the long-range perspective, and the press of new experience upon our attention. But there is a fourth factor whose existence is generally unnoticed and whose importance is equally unknown. This is the fact that the grief tends more and more to become a past memory, more and more recognized for what it really always was, that is, a thought.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26804 – 13.21.5.6

BN – Z

When we are free from the illusion that things are outside the mind, the way is prepared for an easier conquest over the desire for them—that is, for equanimity. "From desire of happiness men, enemies to themselves, blindly slay their own happiness," said Shanti Deva hundreds of years ago.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26805 – 13.21.5.7

BN – Z

The practical value of grasping that the world is an idea is not only in the spirit of calm detachment which it gives but also in the liberation which it gives from various fears.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26806 – 13.21.5.8

BN – Z

However much a Mentalist I may be by conviction and experience, I do not let it blot out the kind of world in which my body is living and active. The need for practicality, the keeping of both feet on the ground, is still there.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26808 – 13.21.5.10

BN – Z

There is no reason why a mentalist should fail to regard the actual world as practically as any materialist. He is neither a fool nor a dreamer. He calls on both the scientific attitude and the mystical experience to support his view.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26809 – 13.21.5.11

BN – Z

Through the disappearance of the world during mystical meditation he finds out its non-materiality. This is the Glimpse. But with his return to the world his glimpse changes into a memory only. How to establish it permanently, this harmony between inner vision and outer world, is discoverable only when living and active in the world yet thoroughly understanding the mentalistic nature of the world.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26810 – 13.21.5.12

A251217 – Z – K

Such development comes only after many births. And since this truth has to be lived, it must be in practice and not only in theory. Before a man comes to this truth, this mentalism, much time is needed to enable his mind to develop and receive it.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26811 – 13.21.5.13

A251217 – Z – K

The practical message of mentalism is not only to warn us of the creative value of our thought but also to bid us seek out the source of thought. For there lies our real home, and there we must learn to dwell habitually.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26812 – 13.21.5.14

BSG_4 – Z – DK1

The mental character of the world of our experience, once accepted, changes our religious, metaphysical, scientific, moral, and practical attitudes. Much in it does not need much thought for us to realize how grave is the importance of this fact, how momentous the results to which it leads!

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26813 – 13.21.5.15

BN – ZZ – K1

Inwardly and daily he returns to this idea that all is Idea, that the familiar world—its places and people, its city life seething with activity, its vaunted civilization and polished culture—has no other existence than in his consciousness and takes its reality from that. So to become conscious of Consciousness detached from its productions—thoughts—is his task, draws his strength and devotion.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26814 – 13.21.5.16

BA11 – P – DE

The way out is constantly to remember to think and to affirm that the world and all one sees and experiences in it has no other substance than Mind and gets its brief appearance of reality from Mind. When this is thoroughly understood and applied, its truth will one day stay permanently with him.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26816 – 13.21.5.18

BN – Z – DK1

Even though he knows it is like a dream, he must live, work and act, love, strive and suffer as if the dream were true.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26817 – 13.21.5.19

A231220 – ZZZ – DK

The effect of a full and proper absorption of these ideas is to strengthen a man and invigorate his purpose, to make him feel that what is behind the universe is behind him too.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26819 – 13.21.5.21

UR_5 – ZZZ – DK

Our pleasures and pains are not different when we realize them to be mentalistic, but our attitude toward them is different.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26823 – 13.21.5.25

BN – Z – K

The constant practice of identifying himself with the mind rather than with the body-idea which inheres in it, leads in time to a certain freeing of himself from himself.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26824 – 13.21.5.26

ME_01 – P – K

Mentalism does not teach us to ignore the world and to dismiss the body. It does not tell us to cease from activity and to deny life's utility. It simply gives us a new and truer way of looking at these things.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26831 – 13.21.5.33

BN – Z

What is the hidden meaning of Saint Paul's words which are so often quoted but so little understood: "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace"? Do they refer only to sexual morality? Do they refer to pious feelings? For those who are children in the quest of truth, the answer is obviously in the affirmative. But for the mentally mature and philosophically enlightened, there is a totally different meaning in this statement. To be carnally minded means to apprehend the flesh, that is, matter, as reality. To be spiritually minded means to take nothing else than the egoless Mind as reality. Whoever does this and seeks beyond both matter and ego, obtains the result which Paul indicates—that is, true life and unbroken peace.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26834 – 13.21.5.36

BN – X – DEK

He now sees what he did not see earlier, that the outer happenings of his life are often connected with the inner trends of his thought and that a change in the latter will often produce a change in the former.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The living practice

#26839 – 13.21.5.41

BN – X – D

Power, whether it be worldly or spiritual, always brings responsibility with it.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26842 – 13.21.5.44

BN – X – D

Our existence as human beings is conditioned, and at times even dominated, by circumstances. Often we should like to remold these, but to do so requires control, and control indicates the need for power, and power depends upon knowledge. This is the justification of philosophy. When we understand its doctrines aright, that mind constructs its experience, its environment, its world, we understand the implication that an amendment in our environment can come only through amendment in our thinking. Thought is creative, and we are continually building both ourselves and our environment by the characteristics and qualities of our thoughts.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26843 – 13.21.5.45

BN – X – DEK

Whoever can understand that substance is inseparable from life and that life is inseparable from mind, whoever can intellectually perceive that the whole universe itself is nothing less than Mind in its different phases, has found the theoretical basis for an appreciation of the wonderful possibilites which dwell behind human experience. The mind's powers can indeed be extended far beyond their present puny evolutionary range. He who reflects constantly upon the true and immaterial nature of Mind and upon its magically creative powers tends to develop these powers. When he becomes capable of successful and ego-free concentration, these powers of mind and will come to him spontaneously. It is natural that when his will becomes self-abnegated, his emotion purified, his thought concentrated, and his knowledge perfected higher mental or so-called occult powers arise of their own accord. It is equally natural that he should remain silent about them, even if only because they do not really belong to the named personality which others see. They belong to the Overself.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26851 – 13.21.5.53

ME_01 – Z – K1

Telepathy is possible not because thought can travel in space but because space is actually in thought.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26852 – 13.21.5.54

BN – ZZ – K1

The human body is a part of consciousness, indeed a major part, but consciousness itself is only a part of a larger and deeper consciousness of which we are normally unaware. Yet it is in this mysterious region that the creative origin of the body-idea lies. If the ordinary "I" cannot make the body keep well by merely holding the thought, this is because the creative power lies in an "I" which transcends it. The ego which identifies itself with the body thereby stultifies its latent powers. But as soon as it begins to identify itself with pure Mind, certain powers may begin to unfold. Many cases of mystic phenomena, such as the stigmata of Catholic saints, confirm this.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26853 – 13.21.5.55

ME_01 – X – K1

Whoever develops these powers of the Overself must develop a strong sense of responsibility with them, an awareness that they have been entrusted to him as to a custodian. The grace which allows them can also disallow them.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26854 – 13.21.5.56

BN – X – D

We sin in thought first and then only in the body.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26862 – 13.21.5.64

BN – Z – K

That which we experience inwardly as thought must, if it be strong and sustained enough, manifest itself outwardly in events or environment or both.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26863 – 13.21.5.65

BN – X – D

When these telepathic incidents keep on happening with regularity, the connection between them and the higher power now at work is impossible to miss.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26868 – 13.21.5.70

BN – Z

A man's face becomes white when a strong thought of fear enters his mind; another time it becomes red when a strong thought of shame enters it. Thus mind changes the expression on his face and reveals its influence on the body.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26874 – 13.21.5.76

BN – X – D

No man knows how deep is the reservoir of forces—mental, volitional, or psychical—within him untapped and unused.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26876 – 13.21.5.78

BN – X – D

We are influencing the coming years by our thoughts. The importance of thought in forming external environment, the value of imagination in ultimately creating circumstances, and the use of visualizing the sort of life we aspire to have, are to be impressed and re-impressed on a generation which has to escape from the materialistic outlook. By this twofold process of rising to our divine source and controlling our intellectual ideas, we can begin to control our outward life in an extraordinary manner.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The powerful knowledge

#26882 – 13.21.5.84

ME_01 – P – DK

The enigma of what we are can get its first convincing answer by mentalistic study and practice: it brings a man into awareness of his soul.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26886 – 13.21.5.88

BN – Z

Until he acquires firm possession of the truth of mentalism, the mysteries which lie beyond it can be only hazily grasped.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26887 – 13.21.5.89

BN – Z

If they would only stop to think over the meaning and the importance of self-consciousness, they might get at the Great Secret.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26888 – 13.21.5.90

BN – Z

We do not dream the waking world as we dream during sleep. For the latter is spun out of the individual mind alone, whereas the former is spun out of the cosmic mind and presented to the individual mind. However, ultimately, and on realization, both minds are found to be one and the same, just as a sun ray is found to be the same as the sun ultimately. The difference which exists is fleeting and really illusory but so long as there is bodily experience it is observable. It is correct to note that the present birth-dream is caused by past tendencies; we are hypnotized by the past and our work is to dehypnotize ourselves, that is, to create new thought-habits until the flash comes of itself. But the flash itself comes during a kind of trance state, which may last for a moment or longer. It comes during the higher meditation of supramysticism.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26890 – 13.21.5.92

BN – Z – K1

In one of those apocryphal books which was rejected by those men who formed the canonical collection called the New Testament—a rejection in which they were sometimes wrong, and certainly in this instance—there occurred a saying of Jesus which runs, "When the outside becomes the inside, then the kingdom of heaven is come". Can we expand this mystical phrase into non-mystical language? Yes, here it is: "When the outside world is known and felt to be what it really is—an idea—it becomes a part of the inside world of thought and feeling. When its joys and griefs are known to be nothing more than states of mind, and when all thoughts and feelings and desires are brought from the false ego into the true Self at their centre, they automatically dissolve—and the kingdom of heaven is come".

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26891 – 13.21.5.93

B_11 – ZZ – K1

Think of yourself as the individual and you are sure to die; think of yourself as the universal and you enter deathlessness, for the universal is always and eternally there. We know no beginning and no ending to the cosmic process. Its being IS: we can say no more. Be that rather than this—that which is as infinite and homeless as space, that which is timeless and unbroken. Take the whole of life as your own being. Do not divorce, do not separate yourself from it. It is the hardest of tasks for it demands that we see our own relative insignificance amid this infinite and vast process. The change that is needed is entirely a mental one. Change your outlook and with it "heaven will be added unto you."

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26893 – 13.21.5.95

BA11 – ZZ – DK1

To arrive at the understanding that the universe is non-material and is mental, is to be liberated from materialism. It produces a sensation like that felt by a prisoner who has spent half a lifetime cooped up in a dark and dingy fetid dungeon and who is suddenly liberated, set free, put out of doors in the bright sunshine and fresh clean air. For to be a materialist means to be one imprisoned in the false belief that the matter-world is the real world; to become spiritual is to perceive that all objects are mental ones; the revelation of the mental nature of the universe is so stupendous that it actually sets mind and feeling free from their materialistic prison and brings the whole inner being into the dazzling sunshine of truth, the fresh atmosphere of Reality.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26894E – 13.21.5.96

BN – ZEL1/2 – K1

All those who believe in the materiality of the material world and not in its mental nature, are really materialists—even if they call themselves religious, Christians, spiritualists, occultists, or Anthroposophists. The only way to escape materialism is not to become a follower of any psychic cult or religious faith, but to enquire with the mind into the truth of matter and to be rewarded at length by the abiding perception of its mental Nature. All other methods are futile, or at best are but preparatory and preliminary steps.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26894E – 13.21.5.96

BN – ZEL2/2 – K1

Reality is inaccessible to thought so long as we regard the latter as separate from it. The moment this illusion is dropped, the truth is revealed.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26895 – 13.21.5.97

BN – X – K1

Whoever understands that every object and every person he sees around him is separate only in appearance, and appears so only through the unexamined working of his mind, is becoming ripe for realization. But very few are those who have come to such advanced understanding.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26896 – 13.21.5.98

BSG_4 – ZZ – K1

There are strange, uncommon moments when we seem to be lifted out of ourselves, when the whole of the past and present existences seems but a picture in a fitful dream and when the entire stuff of the universe seems nothing other than momentary thought. At such moments we may understand by an act of intuition rather than of reflection that the world is a product of Mind, not of Matter.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26897 – 13.21.5.99

BA11 – Z

It is a phenomenal feat to understand Einstein's law of relativity as it applies to the physical world; but, after all, this understanding does not bring peace of mind or strength of life. It is quite another thing to understand the law of relativity as it applies to the inner Self and such understanding does bring these things. Our knowledge of physical relativity has led us to control of the atom, whose reward seems to be the likelihood that we shall destroy ourselves, but our knowledge of spiritual relativity leads us to control of the mind, whose reward is to save ourselves.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26898E – 13.21.5.100

A231003 – EL1/1

Outside of the mystical experience wherein the whole universe rolls up and vanishes away, leaving the man "conscious only of consciousness," the next overwhelming realization of mentalism comes to dying persons.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26911 – 13.21.5.113

BN – Z

The truth of mentalism may become intellectually convincing, but it will be subject to doubts so long as it is not carried into the heart and deeply felt like a living thing. It should attain the force of personal experience.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26913 – 13.21.5.115

BN – Z

The faculty of memory is valuable only to the extent that it enables us to remember the Higher Power.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26917 – 13.21.5.119

BN – Z

The fact is that the mere awakening to the truth of mentalism is itself a joyous event, while the final realization of it establishes him in a great calm and a decisive insight. It will set him free from leaning on outside supports, on books, however sacred, or men, however respected—if life and development have not already done so.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26918 – 13.21.5.120

BN – Z

The impact of this truth, coming at the right time to the proper person, has the force of a revelation.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26921 – 13.21.5.123

BN – ZZ

When we understand this truth, we shall understand that the Overself is forever present with us and that this presence is more immediate and intimate than anything else in life.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26923 – 13.21.5.125

BN – Z – DEK

Mind as man is largely self-ignorant, but Mind as Mind is wholly self-illumined. For man is shut up by the body, imprisoned by the very senses to which he is so grateful for sight, hearing, and feeling. But when he comes into self-awareness he is liberated.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > The mystic experience

#26925 – 13.21.5.127

BN – Z – K

The mystery of Mind is undoubtedly the biggest mystery of all. it is necessary to grasp the following: there are two phases of Mind. The first is Consciousness in its everyday form, that is, the consciousness of this time-space-matter world. He must not confine the notion of Mind to that fragment of it which is merely a portion of what is called Mind, or, functionally regarded, merely one of its faculties. It is the transient and relatively less important portion too. Whether consciousness lives or dies, Mind will always go on because it is the hidden source. It is this Infinite Mind which has been called God, Spirit, Brahman, and so forth. He has to get the knowledge that his own little individual stream of consciousness has flowed out of this great source and will eventually return to it and disappear into it. This is Truth. This universal, impersonal Being is what all are after. The ones who seek it consciously are the people who have taken up the Quest. Those who are after it unconsciously take to drink and other sensual enjoyments and pursue the allurements of this most alluring world.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26928E – 13.21.5.130

UR_2.2 – ZEL1/1 – DEK

Mind is governed by its own laws and conjures up its own creations. The universe, at any particular moment of its history, is formed by the action and reaction of these creations.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26930 – 13.21.5.132

BN – ZZ – K1

Mental activity need not be conscious.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26931 – 13.21.5.133

BN – X – K1

The ideas pass, the Mind remains. But while they exist they are included in and share the Mind's reality. The world's appearance is therefore and in this sense real enough to the conscious beings within it while it lasts. Thus the distinction between inner reality and outer appearance, while not effaced, is nevertheless reduced to secondary status.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26932 – 13.21.5.134

BN – X – K

The mysterious question "Who Am I?" is certainly deeply important, which is why it was put forward from the very beginning of his career by Ramana Maharshi. There is also another question which one may venture to state: "Where Am I?" Am I here in the fleshly body or in the invisible mind?

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26938 – 13.21.5.140

BN – ZZ – K

The world looks just as it did before; being understood for what it is—a thought-series—does not alter its appearance. The sage's perception of it is like other men's; his senses function like theirs; but he knows that his experience of it depends on the ever-presence of Consciousness; 'he is never without this awareness'. This is the large first difference.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26940 – 13.21.5.142

BN – Z

The ordinary man thinks he is the ego because he identifies with his thoughts and his body. The awakened man knows that he is the Consciousness behind both.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26943 – 13.21.5.145

BN – Z – D

When I say that I am my own mental existence then I imply I am also the whole universe. Nature exists within me, for Nature is but my idea. The world is my creation. This is no empty vagary but the veritable truth, the grandest which ever entered the half-taught mind of men.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26945 – 13.21.5.147

BN – Z

What else does anyone really own except his consciousness, of which his ordinary self is only a changing product? What else can he take with him unfailingly to any part of the world, and perhaps—if the seers know what they assert—even to that other world beyond?

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26947 – 13.21.5.149

BN – Z

If the ego-mind is that which knows the objective world, it is itself that which is known by a transcendental Mind.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26948 – 13.21.5.150

BN – Z

Scientifically, it would seem that each human being is just a collection of various physical sense-perceptions which quickly change and flow, and that he is nothing more. The religious person would protest and add his spiritual self, or soul, to this collection. Here the philosopher would come along and ask both persons, "What about a consciousness which tells you all this?"

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26949 – 13.21.5.151

BN – Z

Consciousness came first: all thoughts came into being later. It made their existence possible. It is the permanent principle in man whereas they appear and vanish.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26954 – 13.21.5.156

BN – X – D

When we look for the last explanation of the universal phenomenon, we find one persistent and ultimate reality… Consciousness.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26957 – 13.21.5.159

UR_2.1 – ZZZ – K

Mind as we humans now know it is but the frothy tossing wave on the surface of a mile-deep ocean.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness as world

#26958 – 13.21.5.160

BN – X – K

Our own mind is a human analogue of the Universal Mind. Thus in its character and working, Nature provides an easy lesson in divine metaphysics. If we wish to obtain some slight hint as to the nature of the highest kind of mental existence, that is, of God, we must examine the nature of our own individual mind, limited and imperfect though it be. Now philosophy is not afraid to admit pantheism but does not limit itself to pantheism. It also affirms transcendentalism but does not stop with it. It declares that the Unique Reality could never become transformed into the cosmos in the sense of losing its own uniqueness. But at the same time it declares that the cosmos is nevertheless one with and not apart from the Reality.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26964E – 13.21.5.166

BN – ZEL1/3 – K1

philosophy is not afraid to admit pantheism but does not limit itself to pantheism. It also affirms transcendentalism but does not stop with it. It declares that the Unique Reality could never become transformed into the cosmos in the sense of losing its own uniqueness. But at the same time it declares that the cosmos is nevertheless one with and not apart from the Reality. The easiest way to grasp this is to symbolize the cosmos as human thoughts and the Reality as human mind. Our thoughts are nothing other than a form of mind, yet our mind loses nothing of itself when thoughts arise. The World-Mind is immanent in but not confined by the universe in the same way that a man's mind may be said to be immanent in but not confined by his thoughts.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26964E – 13.21.5.166

BN – ZEL2/3 – K1

The World-Mind is immanent in but not confined by the universe in the same way that a man's mind may be said to be immanent in but not confined by his thoughts. Furthermore, not only may we find it helpful in the effort to understand the relation which the cosmos bears to the World-Mind, to compare it with the relation which a thought bears to its thinker or his speech to a speaker, but when we consider how our own mind is able to generate thoughts of the most multivaried kind, we need not be surprised that the Universal Mind is able to generate the inexhaustibly varied host of thought-forms which constitute the cosmos.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26964E – 13.21.5.166

BN – ZEL3/3 – K1

Mind must be distinguished from the states of mind, as the object must be separated from knowing it, the act of knowledge. Spinoza opposed the phenomenal world to the substantial, phenomena to substance; what others call relative to absolute; what the Hindus call illusion to reality; and what the religionists call matter to spirit. But all these statements can only be made because the mind originally makes them, for the mind is the witness of both. We must give the primacy to mind, for it Is. Whether illusion exists or not, whether the absolute exists or not, Mind IS. If the world is constantly present to me, it is a 'mind' which is making it present, for awareness is a power of mind. It is mind which makes the thought of material objects possible for us; and to make 'mind' a by-product of an alleged matter is a contradiction in itself.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26967 – 13.21.5.169

BN – Z

The mind can know as a second thing, as an object, that which is outside itself. This applies to thoughts also. If it is to know anything as it really is in itself, it must unite with that object and become it, in which case the distinction of duality disappears. For instance, to know a person, one must temporarily 'become' that person by uniting with him. Otherwise, all one knows of that person is the mental picture, which may not be similar to the real person. Similarly, the Ultimate Consciousness is not something to be known as a second being apart from oneself. If he knows it in that way he really knows only his mental picture of it. To know it in truth he has to enter into union with it and then the little ego disappears as a separate being but remains as part of the larger self. The wave then knows itself not only as a little wave dancing on the surface of the ocean, but also as the ocean itself. But as all the water of the ocean is ONE, it can no longer regard the millions of other waves as being, from the standpoint of ultimate truth, different from itself.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26968E – 13.21.5.170

BN – EL1/2

During a dream he sees living men, houses, animals, etc. Each is seen as a separate entity. But after he awakens, he understands that all these individual entities issued forth from a single source—his own mind. Therefore they were all made of the same stuff as his mind, they were non-different from it, they were not other than the mind itself. Similarly when he completes the Ultimate Path he will awaken from the illusion of world-existence and know that the entire experience was and is a fragmentation of his own essential being, which he now will no longer limit to the personal self, but will expand to its true nature as the universal mind. The dream will go on all the same because he is still in the flesh, but he will dream 'consciously' and know exactly what is happening and what underlies it all. When this happens he cannot go on living just for purely personal aims but will have to enlarge them to include the welfare of all beings. This does not mean he will neglect his own individual welfare, but only that he will keep it in its place side by side with the welfare of others.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26968E – 13.21.5.170

BN – EL2/2

Human existence cannot have its goal in meditation alone, however rich the experiences may be which such meditation brings. For the deepest possible experience of meditation is to empty consciousness of the world-experience and thus to point out its unreality. But That which does the pointing, and that which is having the experience, and the experience itself—all, in the end, originate from the Real. The discovery of the unreality of the world is useful, for it offers the needed complete detachment from our bonds. But this cannot be the unique, the sole highest purpose of our existence, for then there would be no need to continue existence in the body after the discovery. A mystic must move on and seek the still farther realization which shows the world under a new light and offers an entirely new standpoint for understanding it. And this is that the uniquely real is not less present in the world than in his meditation, only it is present in a different way.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26969E – 13.21.5.171

BN – EL1/2

The discovery of the unreality of the world is useful, for it offers the needed complete detachment from our bonds. But this cannot be the unique, the sole highest purpose of our existence, for then there would be no need to continue existence in the body after the discovery. A mystic must move on and seek the still farther realization which shows the world under a new light and offers an entirely new standpoint for understanding it. And this is that the uniquely real is not less present in the world than in his meditation, only it is present in a different way. It is like the dreamer who wakens to the fact that he is dreaming and who continues to dream but knows all the time that it is a dream experience. In just the same way the highest realization is that the Real is Consciousness—the pure, the ultimate Consciousness—but this consciousness can take different forms and yet still remain what it really is.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26969E – 13.21.5.171

BN – EL2/2

"The universe is my mind; my mind is the universe," said Lu Hsiang-shan. There is no end to the number of things to be learned about the universe, he argued. Learn therefore to know the one great principle—the mind—behind it.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26970 – 13.21.5.172

BN – Z

There is no other conclusion for the profound thinker than that mind must come out of Mind.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26972 – 13.21.5.174

BN – Z

What is the reality behind all our experiences? Since they are thoughts, and since thoughts are made possible by Consciousness, it must be the Consciousness. This remains true even when the "I" is unaware and unconscious, because limited and little, being only a thought itself, an object known like other objects; the Real is still there but hidden.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26973 – 13.21.5.175

BN – Z – D

The Vedantin tells you, "Your experience of the world is illusory; you take it to be existent; you see a snake when there is only a rope." But the philosopher comments: "It is misleading only if while you are in the body you take it to be utterly and ultimately real. The world is actually there, but what is it that makes it there for you? Consciousness! That is the reality. But what you call consciousness is only a fragment, a very small confined thing, compared with its source."

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26974 – 13.21.5.176

BN – Z

Materialism is strongly repudiated by those who understand that Consciousness at its highest is itself the Supreme Reality, and not merely a by-product of the material body.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26975 – 13.21.5.177

BN – Z

When we come at last to perceive that all this vast universe is a thought-form and when we can feel our own source to be the single and supreme principle in and through which it arises, then our knowledge has become final and perfect.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26976 – 13.21.5.178

BA11 – ZZ – DK1

To man's physical senses the Real offers no evidence of its existence. Therefore, to him it is as Nothing.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26977 – 13.21.5.179

BN – Z

We never know Consciousness. We can claim to know objects and thoughts, impressions and feelings, because each being separate from the other they can only be known by a person, an individual, a separate and distinct knower. But Consciousness, being the light behind all thoughts, cannot be reduced to an ego-thought, confined with a little "I."

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26978 – 13.21.5.180

BN – Z

The mind which forms such a multitude of images of the things outside the body, can nevertheless form no image of itself.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26979 – 13.21.5.181

BN – Z

Where does this Consciousness come from? This will never be discovered, because it is itself both the asker and the answer; it was there before the question arose, it made the question possible, it will be there when all else has passed away. This thin ray of conscious being which is the questioner's known self contains in itself the ultimate solution of all his self-made riddles.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26985 – 13.21.5.187

BN – Z

The element of consciousness, 'Vijnana', is not subject to death: this is asserted in an old Buddhist text, 'The Saddha-tu-Sutta'.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26986 – 13.21.5.188

BN – Z

That which is always in the background of all thoughts is Consciousness. Without it they could never appear nor exist, whereas Consciousness exists in its own self-sufficiency.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26987 – 13.21.5.189

BN – Z – D

The form of consciousness may change, the fact of consciousness may be temporarily obscured, but the reality behind consciousness can never be annihilated.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26988 – 13.21.5.190

BN – Z

The true being, World-Mind, was there before men's thoughts began.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26989 – 13.21.5.191

BN – Z – K

What is energy? Its transformations are known as sound, light, heat, and so on. But these are only appearances of something else. One never catches an isolated pure energy-in-itself. It is about as detectable as pure matter. There is therefore something behind energy and behind intellect, or shall it be said, behind life and behind thought. Energy cannot be reconciled with an eternal state. But if energy itself springs up as an emanation from the deeper level of mind it may be possible to effect such a reconciliation. Neither intellect nor energy can be the eternal soul but both could be ever-changing emanations of something which might itself be relatively changeless.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26992E – 13.21.5.194

BN – EL1/1

It is absolutely certain and quite unquestionable that consciousness is primary, the beginning of all things, the only God there could be and the only one there has ever been. If anyone doubts it, it is because he is blinded, so does not see; he is befogged, so does not understand. From what or from whom else did he derive his own consciousness, his knowing power, and his thinking capacity?

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26993 – 13.21.5.195

BN – Z

Anterior to all things is Mind. Electronic energy and material being are but its aspects.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26995 – 13.21.5.197

BN – Z

Who is it who becomes aware of all these things which make up his world? 'What' is it that perceives objects? 'What' gives its attention to thoughts and things? 'Wherefrom' does consciousness arise, or is it there first, thus making the known world knowable?

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#26999 – 13.21.5.201

BN – Z

Because it is known directly—and not through the medium of thoughts or words—it is called immediate knowledge.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#27000 – 13.21.5.202

BN – ZZ

The world-thought holds in a kind of spell; every possible state of consciousness short of the Overself is still an 'idea' in the human mind.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#27001 – 13.21.5.203

BN – Z

To the extent that any man discovers this for himself, to that extent he is said to be enlightened. Outside of this enlightenment, what he gets or produces is his own mental creation: it may be entirely false or quite correct, but it still remains no more than a mental creation.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#27002 – 13.21.5.204

BN – ZZ

Every kind of experience, whether it be wakeful, dream, hypnotic, or hallucinatory, is utterly and vividly real to the ego at the time its perceptions are operating on that particular level. Why, then, amidst such bewildering relativity, do we talk of divine experience as being the ultimate reality? We speak this way because it is concerned with what bestows the sense of reality to all the other forms of experience. And that is nothing else than the central core of pure Mind within us, the unique mysterious source of 'all' possible kinds of our consciousness. This, if we can find it, is what philosophy calls the truly real world.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#27003 – 13.21.5.205

UR_2.1 – Z – K1

The mental images which make up the universe of our experience repeat themselves innumerable times in a single minute. They give an impression of continuity and permanency and stability only because of this, in the same way that a cinema picture does. If we could efface them and yet keep our consciousness undiminished, we would know for the first time their source, the reality behind their appearances. That is, we would know Mind-in-itself. Such effacement is effected by yoga. Here then is the importance of the connection between mentalism and mysticism.

Mentalism > The Key To the Spiritual World > Consciousness and pure Mind

#27004 – 13.21.5.206

BN – Z – DEK1

When he first faces the mystery which is at the heart's core and in the mind's essence, he knows nothing about it other than that it is the source of his being and that it possesses a power and intelligence utterly transcending his own. Yet he feels that it draws his love and, in his best moments, inspires his character.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration and the Overself

#27005 – 14.22.0.1

BN – Z

He feels the Presence of something higher than himself, wise, noble, beautiful, and worthy of all reverence. Yet it is really himself—the best part come at last into unfoldment and expression.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration and the Overself

#27006 – 14.22.0.2

BN – Z – DM

The spiritual nature can only be discovered spiritually—not intellectually, not emotionally, and certainly not physically. Such a spiritual discovery can only be attained intuitively.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27007 – 14.22.1.1

BN – Z – D

The mystery into which we have been born is not penetrable by weaving fancy or logical intellect. But intuition, if we are patient enough and willing enough to follow it, can lead us into an overwhelming experience where we discover that IT is there, always there.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27008 – 14.22.1.2

BN – Z – D

It is not through any intellectual process of reasoning from premise to conclusion that we come to know we exist, but through an immediate and spontaneous intuition.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27009 – 14.22.1.3

BN – X – D

Where ego merely believes, intuition definitely knows.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27012 – 14.22.1.6

BSG_5 – Z – D

The discovery of its presence makes possible a form of communication between person and Overself which is passive, not active. That is, he is directed guided or corrected in and through his human faculties, intuitively. The person acts, does, thinks, speaks, and decides as if he were doing so completely alone. But he is not: he is responding to the Overself, to the effects of its presence, now unhindered by his ego.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27014 – 14.22.1.8

BN – ZZZ – DK

There is a faculty in man which knows truth when it sees it, which needs no argument, reflection, or cogitation to attest or prove what it knows.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27018 – 14.22.1.12

BSG_5 – ZZ – D

There is another way of knowing beside the ordinary way, through the channels of eyes or thoughts, a way which can be found only by quietening the mind and stilling the emotions.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27019 – 14.22.1.13

BA11 – P – D

Here is this wonderful potency in man lying largely unused, this faculty of intuition that links him with a higher order of being.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27020 – 14.22.1.14

BN – X – D

How many minds have pondered over life and searched for its meaning, only to feel baffled in the end, and held back by their own limitations? For although the active intellect naturally asks such questions, only the intuition can answer them adequately. But the latter is the least cultivated of all our faculties and the most torpid, and this is why we have no access to the answers, and why the questions remain troublesome or even torturing.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27023 – 14.22.1.17

BN – X – D

The intuition is a mystical faculty, whose messages may dawn slowly on the conscious mind or emerge into it suddenly.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27026 – 14.22.1.20

BN – X – D

These intuitive feelings tell us that a deeper kind of Being is at the base of our ordinary consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27027 – 14.22.1.21

BN – X – D

It is almost impossible to put into thoughts that which is above thoughts. But hints, suggestions, and symbols may render some service. Only intuition, which comes up by itself, can come closer still to the truth and deliver what is more like it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27028 – 14.22.1.22

BN – Z – D

If intellect fails to touch Reality, what can? The answer is intuition and inspiration.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27029 – 14.22.1.23

BN – Z

That intuition is often mistaken for insight reveals one of the defects of mysticism. There are some who even question the validity of all insight, and, indeed, this is a sensible question to raise. The whole problem needs threshing out in a paper on the subject. Meanwhile, I must remind those who were troubled by what was written in the appendix to The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga that insight is not concerned with mundane matters, but only with what is beyond our time-space dimensions. Quite obviously, no one has the right to apply such a term to views concerning such matters as intellectual theology or physical diet. Intuition can, however, deal with these quite effectively—when it is, itself, checked by reason.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27030 – 14.22.1.24

BN – Z

If we lack the capacity to comprehend, gauge, or perceive the Infinite, we do have the capacity to feel its presence intuitively.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27031 – 14.22.1.25

BN – Z – D

We can convince the intellect that the soul exists—but the only really adequate proof is intuitive personal experience of it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27035 – 14.22.1.29

BN – Z – D

The discovery of the soul's existence is not a result of intellectual analysis or of emotional feeling but of intuitive experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27036 – 14.22.1.30

BN – Z – D

The intuition should be accorded the highest place among man's faculties. It should always lead or direct them.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27037 – 14.22.1.31

BN – Z – D

Knowledge of the facts concerning man and his nature, his general destiny and spiritual evolution, can be gained by the intuition; but information concerning the details of his personal history must be gleaned, if at all, by the psychical faculty.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27038 – 14.22.1.32

BN – Z – K1

The intuition appears indirectly in aesthetic ecstasy and intellectual creativity, in the pricking of conscience, in the longing for relief from anxieties, or peace of mind. It appears directly only in mystical realization.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27039 – 14.22.1.33

BN – X – K1

The intuition comes from, and leads to, the Overself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27040 – 14.22.1.34

BN – Z – DK1

It is the strength or feebleness of our intuition which determines the grade of our spiritual evolution. What begins as a gentle surrender to intuition for a few minutes, one day resolves into a complete surrender of the ego to the Overself for all time.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27041 – 14.22.1.35

BN – Z – DK1

To find your way to the major truths it is not enough to use the intellect alone, however sharpened it may be. Join intuition to it: then you will have intelligence. But how does one unfold intuition? By penetrating deeper and hushing the noise of thoughts.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27043 – 14.22.1.37

BN – Z – D

Intuition tells us 'what' to do. Reason tells us 'how' to do it. Intuition points direction and gives destination. Reason shows a map of the way there.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27044 – 14.22.1.38

BN – ZZ – DK1

We may oppose one thing to another if both are on the same plane, but not if they are on unequal planes. Intuition is not anti-intellectual but super-intellectual.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27046 – 14.22.1.40

BN – X – DK

When intuition guides and illuminates intellect, balances and restrains the ego, that which the wise men called "true intelligence" rises.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27047 – 14.22.1.41

BN – Z – D

The intuition never needs to hunger for truth. While the intellect is seeking and starving for it, the intuition already knows and feels it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27048 – 14.22.1.42

BN – Z – D

Intuition is truth drawn from one's own self, that is, from within, be it a practical or a spiritual truth, whereas intellect squeezes its conclusion out of presented evidence, that is, from without.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27049 – 14.22.1.43

BN – Z – D

While the intellect argues waveringly at length, the intuition affirms confidently in an instant. While the one gropes among the appearances and shadows of truth, the other walks straight toward truth.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27051 – 14.22.1.45

BN – Z

Ordinarily, ample time is needed to accumulate data and deliberate properly before correct decisions or judgements can be made. None of this is necessary to make them intuitively, for the intuition itself operates out of time and beyond thought.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27052 – 14.22.1.46

BN – Z – D

An intuitive idea is quite different from one derived from the customary process of logical thinking. Unless it is distorted or muddled by the man himself, it is always reliable. Can we say the same of an intellectual idea?

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27053 – 14.22.1.47

BN – X – D

The best wisdom of a man does not come out of acuteness of thinking; it comes out of depth of intuition.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27054 – 14.22.1.48

BN – Z

The danger of intellectualizing these intuitions is that they flee while we prepare to examine them. This is why our theological seminaries produce so many competent religious orators, but so few inspired religious prophets. This is why the art schools produce so many people who can draw good lines and space drawings so well, but so few who can draw something that is individual and outstanding. The intellect is necessary to the complete person, but it should be kept in its place and made to realize that when it approaches such an intuition, it treads on holy ground.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27055 – 14.22.1.49

BN – Z

Reasoned thinking can only check the guidance or revealing of intuition, whereas the latter can actually guide and illumine the path of the former.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27056 – 14.22.1.50

BN – Z

Where the shrewdest judgement finds itself bewildered, the mysterious faculty of intuition moves unhesitatingly and surely.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27057 – 14.22.1.51

BN – Z

It was a period of absolute clarity, when the thought of a problem was welded into one with its solution, when there was no gap of time between question and answer.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27058 – 14.22.1.52

BN – Z

The intellect is one medium of understanding, the intuition is another.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27060 – 14.22.1.54

BN – Z

The intuition should give orders which the intellect should carry out. The reasoning and practicality needed to do so and to attend to their details will then be provided by the intellect itself. But the original function of giving direction and the authority of giving command will be vested in the intuition alone.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27061 – 14.22.1.55

BN – Z – D

Intuition reaches a conclusion directly, without the working of any process of reasoned thinking.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27062 – 14.22.1.56

BN – Z

What the thinking intellect in him cannot receive, the mystical intuition can.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition the Beginning

#27063 – 14.22.1.57

BN – X – D

His first step is to detect the presence of the higher Power consciously in himself through vigilantly noting and cultivating the intuitions it gives him.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27066 – 14.22.1.60

BN – X – D

He must educate himself to recognize the first faint beginnings of "the intuitive mood" and train himself to drop everything else when its onset is noticed.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27067 – 14.22.1.61

BN – Z – D

Intuitive feelings are so easily and hence so often drowned in the outer activity of the body, the passions, the emotions, or the intellect, that only a deliberate cultivation can safeguard and strengthen them.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27068 – 14.22.1.62

BN – X – D

We may ardently want to do what is wholly right and yet not know just what this is. This is particularly possible and likely when confronted with two roads and when upon the choice between them the gravest consequences will follow. It is then that the mind easily becomes hesitant and indecisive. The search for the wisest choice may not end that day or that month. Indeed, it may not end until the last hour of the last day. This is how the aspirants are tested to see if they can humble the ego with the realization that they are no longer capable of making their own decision but must turn it over to the higher self and wait in quiet patience for the result. But when finally the intuitive guidance does emerge after such deep, sincere, and obedient quest of God's will, it will do so in a formulation so clear and self-evident as to be beyond all doubt.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27069 – 14.22.1.63

BN – Z

The secret is to stop, on the instant, whatever he is doing just then, or even whatever he is saying, and reorient all his attention to the incoming intuition. The incompleted act, the broken sentence, should be deserted, for this is an exercise in evaluation.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27072 – 14.22.1.66

BN – Z – DEK1

The intuition grows by use of it and obedience to it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27075 – 14.22.1.69

BN – Z – DK

The intuitive faculty can be deliberately cultivated and consciously trained.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27076 – 14.22.1.70

BN – X – K1

Intuitive guidance comes not necessarily when we seek it, but when the occasion calls for it. It does not usually come until it is actually needed. The intellect, as part of the ego, will often seek it in advance of the occasion because it may be driven by anxiety, fear, desire, or anticipation. Such premature seeking is fruitless.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27077 – 14.22.1.71

BN – Z – DK1

When one has reviewed a problem [Editor's note: 'a certain type of problem'] from all its angles, and has done this not only with the keenest powers of the mind but also with the finest qualities of the heart, it should be turned over at the end to the Overself and dismissed. The technique of doing so is simple. It consists of being still. In the moment of letting the problem fall away, one triumphs over the ego. This is a form of meditation. In the earlier stage it is an acknowledgment of helplessness and weakness in handling the problem, of personal limitations, followed by a surrender of it (and of oneself) to the Overself in the last resort. One can do no more. Further thought would be futile. At this point Grace may enter and do what the ego cannot do. It may present guidance either then, or at some later date, in the form of a self-evident idea.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27078 – 14.22.1.72

BN – ZZZ – DEK1

The commonest error is to try to produce and manufacture intuition. That can't be done. It is something which comes to you. Hence don't expect it to appear when concentrating on a problem, but if at all 'after' you've dismissed the problem. Even then it is a matter of grace—it may or may not come.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27079 – 14.22.1.73

BN – X – DK1

We must be ready to fly in the face of worldly wisdom if our inner mentor so bids it. We shall not rue the day we acted so.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27081 – 14.22.1.75

BN – Z

The giving up of all earthly desires, the liberation of the heart from all animal passions, the letting go of all egoistic grasping—these attitudes will arise spontaneously and grow naturally if a man is truly quest-minded, so that his intuition will assert itself little by little.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27082 – 14.22.1.76

BN – Z – D

Often intuition does not advise him until the time for an action or a decision or a move is nearly at hand. So he must wait patiently until it does and not let intellect or imagination construct fanciful plans which may be cancelled by intuition's arisal.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27084 – 14.22.1.78

BN – Z – D

Being guided intuitively does not mean that every problem will be solved instantly as soon as it appears. Some solutions will not come into consciousness until almost the very last minute before they are actually needed. He learns to be patient, to let the higher power take its own course.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27086 – 14.22.1.80

BN – ZZ – D

These intrusions from a realm beyond conscious thinking may be heavenly ones. If so, to resist them would be to lose much and to accept them would be to gain much. But they have to be caught on the wing. Their delicate beginnings must be recognized for what they are—precious guides.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27088 – 14.22.1.82

BN – X – D

Intuition does not always flash suddenly out of the depths of the mind into consciousness: quite often it forms itself very slowly over a period of hours, days, or even weeks.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27092 – 14.22.1.86

BN – X – D

Who hears this quiet whisper of intuition? Who, hearing, obeys? Not only is it mostly unnoticed but its guidance is also unsought; men prefer, and follow, the ego's direction.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27093 – 14.22.1.87

BSG_5 – P – D

If men followed their intuition more there would be fewer tragedies that could have been prevented or regrets that could have been avoided.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27095 – 14.22.1.89

BN – X – D

The unregarded feeling which first comes when an object, a person, or an event confronts one is mostly the correct intuition about it. But it must be caught on the wing or it will be gone.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27097 – 14.22.1.91

BN – Z – D

Intuition must be caught quickly and inspiration must be followed up at once if they are to remain and not vanish away.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27100 – 14.22.1.94

BN – Z – D

If we respectfully meet each intuitive feeling and give it our trusting collaboration, it will little by little become a frequent visitor.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27101 – 14.22.1.95

BN – Z – D

First, we have to become 'willing' to receive these divine intuitions.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27102 – 14.22.1.96

BN – Z

To open ourselves and receive an intuition we must surrender the ego and submit the intellect to it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27104 – 14.22.1.98

BN – Z

If he is to interpret it aright and not miss its importance, he should let himself go when he feels this inner prompting. Let it absorb his being, draw him inwards to a deepening sense of its self.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27105 – 14.22.1.99

BN – Z

The deeper mind is so close to the source of our karma that we may at times get its right guidance not only intuitively from within but also circumstantially from without.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27106 – 14.22.1.100

BN – Z – DK

The interval between the coming and the going of an intuitive thought is so short that he must immediately and alertly respond to it. If he misses it, he will find that the mind can go back to it only with difficulty and uncertainty.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27107 – 14.22.1.101

BN – Z – D

We can receive a new truth more easily in the mind's quietude than in the mind's agitation. When thinking is stilled, intuiting begins. Such internal silence is not useless idleness, it is creative experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27108 – 14.22.1.102

BSG_4 – P – D

The Overself may use some event, some person, or some book as a messenger to him. It may make any new circumstance act in the same way. But he must have the capacity to recognize what is happening and the willingness to receive the message.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27109 – 14.22.1.103

BA12 – P – D

To 'let' the intuitive feelings come through requires an inner passivity which meditation fosters but which extroversion inhibits.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27110 – 14.22.1.104

BN – X – D

Submit yourself as an empty vessel to be filled with the intuitive leading of Overself. Do not stop short of this goal, do not be satisfied with a half-and-half sort of life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27111 – 14.22.1.105

BN – Z – D

When this first faint intrusion is sensed, the need is for utter relaxation, for becoming passive and yielding. Only so can the aspirant follow intuitive prompting more and more inwards until it becomes stronger and stronger, clearer and clearer.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27114 – 14.22.1.108

BN – Z – DK

When seeking intuitional light upon a subject, the aspirant is advised to put his body in a recumbent position. This, passive as it is, will correlate with the passivity of mind that he should cultivate at such a time.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27116 – 14.22.1.110

BN – X – D

An intuition which is vague and weak in the beginning may become clear and certain in the end—if allowed to grow.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27118 – 14.22.1.112

BN – Z – D

Have faith in your inner promptings and accept their guidance. When you are uncertain about them, wait and they will gradually clarify themselves.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27120 – 14.22.1.114

BN – Z – D

In this book I have considered myself to be a sensitive recording instrument, carefully and minutely registering the impressions received from these higher states of consciousness. They are messages brought from the infinite for the blessing and guidance of finite man. But he must recognize their value and esteem their source.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27122M – 14.22.1.116

BA13 – ZZZ – DXK

In the search for guidance when we have to make a momentous decision, or take an important step, it is well to go into the "Silence" with our problem. We may not get the answer quickly or even directly but if we are well-experienced in this kind of seeking, a light may eventually emerge from the dark and shine down on the problem.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27124 – 14.22.1.118

BN – Z – DEK

What is sometimes so hard to do is to trust this intuitive monitor when it contradicts the voices of those who are monitorless. But in the end he will discover by results that this is practical wisdom.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27126 – 14.22.1.120

BN – ZZ

Sometimes an intuition appears as a vague feeling which haunts a man and which he cannot shake off.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27127 – 14.22.1.121

BN – X – D

If he firmly believes in his own hidden intuitive powers, he will be able to ascribe much of his success to his readiness to follow their guidance, despite the opposition of logic and circumstances.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27128 – 14.22.1.122

BN – ZZ – D

When we keep ourselves busy with everything external and our minds with thoughts about everything external, the intuition is unable to insert itself into our awareness. Even if it whispers to us, we will not realize what is happening. If we continue to ignore it, we may lose the capacity to hear it at all. It is then that we have to retrain ourselves to do so. The practice of meditation is one such way of training our receptivity.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27129 – 14.22.1.123

BN – X – D

The source of intuitive knowledge lies outside the conscious mind. The vehicle which conveys that knowledge need not necessarily be within us. It may be without us, in the form of a book, a person, or an event to which we are led, guided, or prompted.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27130 – 14.22.1.124

BN – Z – D

We blunder in life and make endless mistakes because we have no time to listen for the Overself's voice—Intuition.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27131 – 14.22.1.125

BN – X – D

A change of attitude towards his problems may help to clear the way for intuition to operate on the conscious level. These inner promptings—when authentic and not ego-biased, and when double-checked by reason—can guide him to wiser decisions concerning both outward work and inner life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27132 – 14.22.1.126

BN – ZZ

If we would heed our intuitions as much as we heed our desires, the trick would be done. Illumination would come in not too long a time.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27133 – 14.22.1.127

BN – X – D

In trying to get an intuitive answer, it is important to formulate the problem or the questions clearly and as sharply as you can.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27135 – 14.22.1.129

BN – X – D

If he feels the intuition but does not attend to it then, however slightly, the very faculty which produced it begins to lose strength. This is the penalty imposed for the failure, and this shows how serious it is.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27139 – 14.22.1.133

BN – X – D

If he is always alert for this intuitive feeling, he will throw aside whatever he is doing and meditate upon it at once. He will depend more and more on these casual exercises, in contrast to the dependence on fixed routine exercises in the Long Path.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27140 – 14.22.1.134

BN – X – D

Treasure every moment when the intuition makes itself felt and, most especially, when it takes the form of a glimpse into higher truth; it is then that other things should be well put aside in order to sustain and prolong the experience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27141 – 14.22.1.135

BN – X – D

If only he heeds its intuitive message, the higher self will not fail him. He will make his way to true balanced sanity and deep inner calm. Without searching for others, knowing that in himself God's representative resides and that this can give the right kind of help, he will depend for self-reliance on an ever-presence.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27143 – 14.22.1.137

BN – X – D

If one cultivates sufficient faith, out of the cosmic mind will come the response to his aspirations and, eventually, the answers to his questions. To receive this, one must learn to keep a constant vigil for intuitive feelings and messages of the most delicate nature, and to trust his inner promptings. His attention should always have God at its centre.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27144 – 14.22.1.138

BN – X – D

By constant prayer and aspiration to his higher self, the student will get intuitive promptings from time to time. He should catch them when they appear and yield himself to them: in this way he will get the necessary guidance from within.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27145 – 14.22.1.139

BN – X – D

Once you learn to recognize the intuitive voice, follow its dictates; do not hesitate to conform with them nor try to make up an excuse for failing to do so if the guidance is unpalatable.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27146 – 14.22.1.140

BN – ZZ – D

Whatever be the personal problem, if reason, experience, and authority cannot solve it, carry it inwards to the deep still centre. But you must learn to wait in patience for the answer, for the blockage is in you, not in it. A day or a month may pass until the response is felt, thought, or materialized.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27148 – 14.22.1.142

BN – Z – D

There is a feeling of sacredness, of holy peace at such moments, and they should be cherished for the precious moments that they are. They contain hints of the communion with the Higher Self, elements of something beyond the ordinary self, and possibilities of transcending the past with its debris of memories and mistakes.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27149 – 14.22.1.143

BN – Z – D

In every important move he will seek guidance from the intuitive levels of being as well as from the intellectual.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27150 – 14.22.1.144

BN – Z – D

Where the wakeful consciousness is not easily reached owing to its preoccupations, then the dream consciousness will be more receptive to the message.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27153 – 14.22.1.147

BN – X – D

Sometimes an intuition does not stay behind. It flashes through consciousness for a small fraction of a second and is gone. Unless it is detected and recognized during this quick passage while it is still fresh, we are hardly likely to do so afterwards.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27154 – 14.22.1.148

BN – X – D

Either a man possesses this intuitive sense or he does not. It cannot be created by argument or analysis.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27156 – 14.22.1.150

BN – ZZ

They betray the higher part of themselves every time they resist, reject, or merely ignore the intuitive feelings which come so delicately into consciousness.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27157 – 14.22.1.151

BN – X – D

In the seeming self's activity, personal willpower is used and personal effort is made. In the Overself's activity, both these signs are absent. Instead there is a passive receptivity to its voice—intuitions—and obedience to its guidance.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27158 – 14.22.1.152

BN – X – D

When the inner voice says what we do not like to hear, we are apt to ignore it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27160 – 14.22.1.154

BN – Z – D

In its first manifestation, an intuitive idea is too often such a tiny spark that we are more likely to miss it than not.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27161 – 14.22.1.155

BN – Z

It is more prudent to obey warning premonitions than to ignore them.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27162 – 14.22.1.156

BN – Z

Take time over problems, let your final decisions wait until they are fully ripe.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27163 – 14.22.1.157

BN – Z

Where is the wisdom in forcing a quick decision, which could easily be a wrong one, merely to get a decision at all?

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27164 – 14.22.1.158

BN – Z

Intuition is the voice which is constantly calling him to this higher state. But if he seldom or never pauses amid the press of activity to listen for it, he fails to benefit by it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27165 – 14.22.1.159

BN – Z – D

Such intuitions manifest themselves only on the fringe of consciousness. They are tender shoots and therefore need to be tenderly nurtured.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27166 – 14.22.1.160

BN – Z

The more he follows a course contrary to intuitive leading, the more will errors and mishaps follow him.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27167 – 14.22.1.161

BN – Z

In the end he will rely on this little inner voice which, if he listens humbly, speaks and tells him which way to turn.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27169 – 14.22.1.163

BN – Z – D

He will learn sooner or later by the test of experience to defer to this intuitive feeling whenever its judgement, guidance, or warning manifests itself.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27170 – 14.22.1.164

BN – X – D

Edison said that all his inventions grew out of initial flashes which welled up from within. The rest was a matter of research.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27173 – 14.22.1.167

BN – X – D

Is he fully open to intuitive feelings that originate in his deeper being, his sacred self? Or does his ego get in the way by its rigidities, habits, and tendencies? The importance of these feelings is that they are threadlike clues which need following up, for they can lead him to a blessed renewal or revelation.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27175 – 14.22.1.169

BN – X – D

The capacity to respond to spiritual intuitions is latent in all men but trained and developed in few men.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27176 – 14.22.1.170

BN – Z – DK

From this hidden source comes at times guidance, warnings, attractions, or aversions which ought to be construed as intuitive messages. But for this they must first be recognized and believed: they pass too quickly.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27177 – 14.22.1.171

BN – X – D

It is true that conscience is the voice of the Overself in the moral life of man, but it is also true that he seldom hears its pure sound. Most often he hears it mixed with much egotism.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27180 – 14.22.1.174

BN – Z – D

Most inner guidance is rarely purely intuitive but more often a mixture of genuine intuition with wishful thinking. Hence it is right in parts and wrong in others.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27182 – 14.22.1.176

BN – Z

The original intuition itself may be a correct one but its reception is so inexpert and so biased that the version accepted in consciousness has deformed and somewhat falsified it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27183 – 14.22.1.177

BN – Z

The intuitive approach is the most effective of all, provided it is not clouded by suggestion from outside sources or blurred by bias from inside ones.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27185 – 14.22.1.179

BN – Z

Before a man complains that he is unable to get intuition, he should remember that his own moral fault may be responsible for this. It can not only prevent him from receiving true intuitions but also from responding to them in action.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27186 – 14.22.1.180

BN – X – D

Nor when the answer first comes, may we understand it aright. We may mix it up with our own ideas or wishes, our own expectations or fancies, and the result will be that the help received will not work out quite as it should have done. We may have to spend further years straightening out the message and, incidentally, ourselves. But again, it is worth doing and nothing else is so much worth doing.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27188 – 14.22.1.182

BN – ZZ

He will come to find that the guidance he receives is perfect but his reception of it may still be imperfect.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27189 – 14.22.1.183

BN – Z

The genuine intuition gets mixed up with guesses and speculations about the matter, with reasonings and ruminations about it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27190 – 14.22.1.184

BN – Z

His intuition is unavoidably conditioned by his own personality, inevitably shaped as it is because he is the kind of man he is.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27191 – 14.22.1.185

BN – Z

It is not only his wishes and hopes which interfere with correct receptivity to intuition but also his fears and suspicions.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27192 – 14.22.1.186

BN – Z

One whose mind is too sharply critical to be sensitive to finer mental radiations may fail to recognize the inner happening. This may be because he himself is not sufficiently in tune with the high frequency represented by Overself, or it may be because he is too impatient and wants something which in his case can only be had with sufficient time.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27194 – 14.22.1.188

BN – X – K

When intuition points to something unwelcome to the ego, the intellect looks for and usually finds an excuse to reject it. A man who really and sincerely wants to find the Truth should be on the lookout for hints, clues, and signs which would be useful to his Quest, for they constitute the response from the Overself to his aspiration. The Overself can furnish him with the Truth and puts these signals in his way.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Cultivating, developing intuition

#27195 – 14.22.1.189

BN – ZZ – D

No counsel could be safer and better than that which proceeds from a man to himself by way of intuition. But first let him be sure that it is intuition.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27196 – 14.22.1.190

BN – ZZ – D

Intuition carries its own assurance with it. Those skilled, proficient, and accustomed to it, who are able to recognize the authentic signs, can safely accept and trust themselves to it. But the beginner and the inexperienced need to check and test it, lest they are led astray by some impostor posing as the real thing or by some impulse sincerely presuming itself to be the real thing.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27197 – 14.22.1.191

BN – Z

Intuition will not mislead you but your conscious mentality, which is its receiving agent, may do so. For your consciousness may partially deviate from its message, or even wholly pervert it, in giving deliverance to exaggerations or extravagances, impossibilities or delusions, thus filling you with useless hopes or groundless fears. Consequently, at the very time when you suppose that you are being infallibly guided by intuition you may in fact be strongly guided by pseudo-intuition—which is something quite different. You may believe that you are honouring higher guidance when in actuality you are dishonouring it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27199E – 14.22.1.193

BN – EL1/3

To get intuitive direction when, for example, two or more conflicting courses of action confront you is not so easy as it seems and less easy still during a time of trouble. For during such a time you will naturally catch at anything already unknowingly or knowingly pre-determined by some complex to be the best way out of it. The very desire for a particular thing, event, or action may put a pseudo-intuition into your mind. If you want to be wary of this you should seek corroboration from other sources and especially from right reason. Again, the first thought which enters your consciousness after you have decided to seek such direction and have committed your affair to the deeper mind, is not necessarily an authentic intuition. Nor is the second thought such a one, nor the third, and so on. If the impression is to be rightly received, it must be patiently received, and that quite often means that you must sleep on it, and sleep on it perhaps for several days, sometimes weeks.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27199E – 14.22.1.193

BN – EL2/3

The trustworthy intuition is really there during all this time but the obstacles to knowing it are also there in yourself. Do not, therefore, lose the inner direction through haste nor set up a stone image to be worshipped by mistake in its place. Nor is it enough to say that intuitive truths are self-evident ones. What appeared to be self-evident to you twenty years ago may now appear self-delusive to you. Edit your intuitions with your reason.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27199E – 14.22.1.193

BN – EL3/3

All men at some time or other receive intuitive suggestions from within, whilst a few men receive them constantly. It is not therefore that intuition is such a rare and extraordinary manifestation. What is rare and extraordinary is its pure reception, its correct comprehension. For on the one hand we receive along with an intuition the suggestions of environment, education, heredity, and self-interest no less than the distortions of desire, fear, and hope, while on the other hand we receive the doubts and questionings of reason. Even if we correct the suggestions and adjust the distortions of the first group, we remain uncertain and unclear because reason naturally wants to know why? It wants to understand why an intuitive prompting should be accepted. And by the very nature of an intuition it is often something which neither past experience nor present logic can justify.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27200E – 14.22.1.194

BN – EL1/2 – DEK

Reason wants to understand why an intuitive prompting should be accepted. And by the very nature of an intuition it is often something which neither past experience nor present logic can justify. This is not only because all the facts of the case are not at our command but, because of their endless ramifications or superphysical character, cannot possibly be at our command. These are some of the difficulties which confront man at his present stage of evolution and which render so many so-called intuitions unreliable or undependable even though their original birth was genuinely what it claimed to be. What is the remedy? Only careful, ruthless, and impartial analysis of each and every intuition, constant vigilance over and checking of the results which ensue when they are accepted, and long self-training through several years can finally bring us to the clear recognition of what is or is not authentic intuitive guidance, suggestion, or information.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27200E – 14.22.1.194

BN – EL2/2 – DEK

He would not be so bad a judge of value as to prefer reason over intuition, whenever he had the absolute certainty that it was intuition. But past experience has shown how difficult it is to arrive at such certitudes, how deceptive are the masks which impulse, desire, rashness, and selfishness can assume. Until, therefore, his development has reached the point where a genuine intuition is at once recognized as such and a pseudo-intuition quickly detected for what it is, he must not abandon the use of reason but rather regard it as a most valuable ally.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27201 – 14.22.1.195

BN – Z – DEK

How can he tell if inner guidance is truly intuitive or merely pseudo-intuitive? One of the ways is to consider whether it tends to the benefit of all concerned in a situation, the others as well as oneself. The word "benefit" here must be understood in a large way, must include the spiritual result along with the material one. If the guidance does not yield this result, it may be ego-prompted and will then hold the possibility of error.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27202 – 14.22.1.196

BN – Z – DM1

An intuitive feeling is one untainted by the ego's wishes, uncoloured by its aversions.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27203 – 14.22.1.197

BN – ZZ – K1

Wrong personal intention may be negated by right intuitive guidance, but it is not easy to recognize the latter as such. The difference between a mere impulse and a real intuition may often be detected in two ways: first, by waiting a few days, as the subconscious mind has then a chance to offer help in deciding the matter; second, by noting the kind of emotion which accompanies the message. If the emotion is of the lower kind, such as anger, indignation, greed, or lust, it is most likely an impulse. If of the higher kind, such as unselfishness or forgiveness, it is most likely an intuition.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27204 – 14.22.1.198

BN – Z – DEK1

You may recognize the voice of wisdom when having to make a decision by the fact that it proceeds out of deep inner calm, out of utter tranquillity, whereas impulse is frequently born in exaggerated enthusiasm or undue excitement.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27205 – 14.22.1.199

BN – ZZZ – DK1

A compelling inner conviction or intuition need not necessarily collide with cold reason. But as an assumed intuition which may be merely a bit of wishful thinking or emotional bias, it is always needful to check or confirm or discipline it by reasoning. The two can work together, even whilst recognizing and accepting each other's peculiar characteristics and different methods of approach. Hence all intuitively formed projects and plans should be examined under this duplex light. The contribution of fact by reason should be candidly and calmly brought up against the contribution of inward rightness made by "intuition." We must not hesitate to scrap intuitively formed plans if they prove unworkable or unreasonable.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27206 – 14.22.1.200

BN – Z – K1

The promptings that come from this inner being are so faintly heard at first, however strong on their own plane, that we tend to disregard them as trivial. This is the tragedy of man. The voices that so often mislead him into pain-bringing courses—his passion, his ego, and blind intellect—are loud and clamant. The whisper that guides him aright and to God is timid and soft.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27207 – 14.22.1.201

BN – ZZ – DK1

So subtle is the oncoming and so mysterious is the working of the true intuition, so open and blatant is the fantasy that is false intuition, that the first test of authenticity is indicated here.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27208 – 14.22.1.202

BN – Z – K1

The day will come when constant effort and long practice will permit him to recognize true from pseudo-intuition with the speed and certainty with which a musically trained ear recognizes notes and times (tunes) in a played piece.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27212 – 14.22.1.206

BN – X – D

Intuition is always sure of itself, but few persons are always sure whether what they feel is actually intuition or not. They may test it against reasoned analysis.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27214 – 14.22.1.208

BN – Z

If it is authentic intuition, he will feel increasingly convinced by it as days and weeks pass until in the end its truth will seem unarguable to him.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27217 – 14.22.1.211

BN – X – D

What intuition reveals the deepest thought confirms.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27219 – 14.22.1.213

BN – Z

An intuition comes into the mind suddenly. But so does an impulse. Therefore it is not enough to take this mark alone to identify it. It is strong; so is an impulse. It is clear; so is an impulse. To separate the deceptive appearance from the genuine reality of an intuition, look for the trail of assurance, relief, and peace to follow in its wake.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27222 – 14.22.1.216

BN – X – D

It is never present without certain qualities being present with it, too. There is first an utter serenity, then a steady joy, next an absolute conviction of its truth and reality, finally the paradoxical feeling of a rock-firm security despite any appearance of adverse outer circumstances.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27223 – 14.22.1.217

BN – X – D

The process is partly an unconscious one, they know, because something is being done to them by this higher power. They cannot exactly define why they must accept its truth, but its mental effect is almost hypnotic. It is an intuition which is self-supporting, which must be accepted upon its own mysterious authority. Nor do they accept it because of its inherent strength alone. They accept it also because of its inherent beauty.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27224 – 14.22.1.218

BN – ZZ

There are four chief ways in which guidance may be given. They are: intuitive feeling, giving in a general way approbation or rejection of a proposed course of action; direct and precise inner message; the shaping of outer circumstances; and the teaching of inspired texts. If all four exist together, and if they all harmonize, then you may step forward in the fullest assurance. But if there are contradictions between them, then great caution and some delay is certainly advisable.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27227 – 14.22.1.221

BA12 – P – DK

It is also needful to remember that the higher self can only be known by the higher part of the mind, that is, the intuition. The emotions are on a lesser and lower level, however noble or religious they may be. The immense satisfaction which the ecstatic raptures give is no indication that he is directly touching reality, but only that he is coming closer to it. They may seem purely spiritual, but they still belong to the ego's feeling nature and if he believes otherwise he will fall into self-deception. Only through the pure intuition, freed from emotional egoism and transcending intellectual illusion, can he really make a contact with the Overself. And that will happen in a state of utter and perfect tranquillity; there will be none of the emotional excitement which marked the successful practice of the earlier stage of meditation exercises.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27228 – 14.22.1.222

BN – X – DEK

When the deliverance of intuition cancels the deliverance of reason, he may trust himself to the first, but only when he is sure it is what it purports to be.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27229 – 14.22.1.223

BN – Z

When he finds some of his own intuitions formulated and printed in someone else's book, he feels their truth is confirmed and his own mind comforted.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27230 – 14.22.1.224

BN – ZZZ

He has the right to judge an intuition rationally before submitting to it, but what if his judgement is itself wrong?

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27231 – 14.22.1.225

BN – Z

Intuition may support reason but must supplant it only on the gravest occasions.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27232 – 14.22.1.226

BN – Z

The sudden revelation of correct understanding, whether in certain situations or about uncertain problems, may come unexpectedly or abruptly anytime during the day. It springs up of its own accord or it appears in a dream as a message.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27233 – 14.22.1.227

BN – Z

If the intuitive feeling leads him gently at some times, it also leads him firmly at other times.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27234 – 14.22.1.228

BN – Z

An intuition is directly self-revealing; it does not depend on what kind of thought and study were done before it appeared. It is also self-evident: the correctness of the guidance given or information imparted becomes obvious and doubt-dispelling.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27235 – 14.22.1.229

BN – Z

A truth is intuitively discerned when it is so lit up that it appears perfectly self-evident, when the receiving consciousness is very calm, and when the lapse of time tends to strengthen its authority.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27236 – 14.22.1.230

BN – Z

The intuitive answer may come in one of several ways, but the commonest is either a self-evident thought or a deep heartfelt feeling.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27237 – 14.22.1.231

BN – Z – D

It is a truth so plainly self-evident that he cannot help thinking it. This is how intuition usually appears and is usually recognized for what it is.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27238 – 14.22.1.232

BN – Z

The mysterious appearance of an intuition may well make us ask where it comes from. At one moment it is not there; at the next it is lodged in the mind.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27240 – 14.22.1.234

BN – Z

Sometimes we are wiser than we know and utter involuntary answers which surprise us with their unexpected wisdom or unknown Truth. This is one way intuitions are born.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27241 – 14.22.1.235

BN – Z

Because it comes from within, it comes with its own authority. When it is "the real thing," the seeker will not have to question examine or verify its authenticity, will not have to run to others for their appraisal of its worth or its rejection as a pseudo-intuition. He will know overwhelmingly what it is in the same way that he knows who he is.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27242 – 14.22.1.236

B_05 – P – D

When a man hesitates too long over taking a course which intuition tells him he should take, and in which his higher life is concerned, it may be that destiny will intervene and make him suddenly realize that this 'is' the way, and that all doubts should be thrown out.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27246 – 14.22.1.240

BA11 – P – D

An intuition may be sudden and unexpected, quite contrary to the line of previous thought about the matter. This is certainly true of many appearances but it is not true of other ones.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27247 – 14.22.1.241

BN – Z

Every thought which comes down to us from that serene height comes with a divine authority and penetrating force which are absent from all other thoughts. We receive the visitant with eagerness and obey it with confidence.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and pseudo-intuition

#27249 – 14.22.1.243

BN – Z – D

Intuition is not the equal but rather the superior of all other human faculties. It delivers the gentlest of whispers, commands from the Overself, whereas the other faculties merely carry them out. It is the master, they are the servants. The intellect thinks, the will works, and the emotion drives towards the fulfilment of intuitively felt guidance in the properly developed spiritually erect man.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27250 – 14.22.1.244

BSG_5 – P – D

The philosopher is simultaneously a thinker and a believer, but his ruling role is neither. It is that of an intuitionist.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27251 – 14.22.1.245

BN – X – D

The intuition must lead all the rest of man's faculties. He must follow it even when they do not agree with its guidance. For it sees farther than they ever can, being an efflux from the godlike part of himself which is in its way a portion of the universal deity. If he can be sure that it is not pseudo-intuition, truth in it will lead him to life's best, whether spiritual or worldly.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27252 – 14.22.1.246

BN – Z – D

He will have to maintain his loyalty to the intuition against the cautions, the excessive prudence, of a frightened intellect.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27255 – 14.22.1.249

BN – Z

In the fully trained philosopher, intuition is the most active faculty.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27256 – 14.22.1.250

BN – Z – D

The intuition is to collate all these different functions of the personality, and direct them towards its truest welfare.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27257 – 14.22.1.251

BN – X – D

A man is really free when his intuition directs his intellect and rules his energies.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27258 – 14.22.1.252

BN – ZZ – D

Feeling is as much a part of true insight into the Real as knowing. It gives life to the end result. It is evoked by enlightened writings and inspired art works. Thinking may not rightly claim overlordship here, but intuition, the silent voice of the Overself, may do so.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Let intuition rule

#27260 – 14.22.1.254

BN – Z – D

Among all the varied powers of the mind, a properly unfolded intuition is indeed one of the most priceless anyone could have. It always warns against wrong courses and often counsels the right ones.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27262E – 14.22.1.256

BSG_5 – P – DE

There is an inner light in all people which could, with time, convert their perplexed questionings into solid certitudes. There is this remarkable fact that hard problems which the unaided intellect cannot solve, gnawing anxieties upon which our past experiences throw no helpful light, may become illumined and solved with ease if we adopt this practical method of applying intuition to them. Among all the varied powers of the mind, a properly unfolded intuition is indeed one of the most priceless anyone could have. It always warns against wrong courses and often counsels the right ones. "I sometimes have a feeling, in fact I have it very strongly, a feeling of interference . . . that some guiding hand has interfered," confessed Winston Churchill in a speech during October, 1942. On the other hand, intuition may help us and allay our fears where reason alone merely increases them.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27262 – 14.22.1.256

BN – X – DEK

The intuitively governed mind is the undivided mind. It does not have to choose between contrasts or accept one of two alternatives. It does not suffer from the double-facedness of being swayed this way or that by conflicting evidence, contradictory emotions, or hesitant judgements.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27263 – 14.22.1.257

BN – Z

However bitter a situation may appear, the accepted prompting of the Overself can bring sweetness into it; however trying it may be, the same prompting can bring fortitude into it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27264 – 14.22.1.258

BN – Z

The man who has trained himself to listen for the voice of intuition, which means trained himself to wait for it to speak and disciplined himself to be inwardly alert yet also inwardly quiet for it, does not have to suffer the painful conflicts and tormenting divisions which others do when confronted by issues demanding a choice or a decision.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27265 – 14.22.1.259

BN – Z – D

He will find, if he accepts this intuitive leading, that although the unfavourable circumstances may remain the same, unchanged, his attitude towards them does not. Out of this inner change there will be given him the strength to deal with them, the calm to deal with them unmoved, and the wisdom to deal with them properly.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27266 – 14.22.1.260

BN – ZZ – DK

There is no single pattern that an intuitively guided life must follow. Sometimes he will see in a flash of insight both course and destination, but at other times he will see only the next step ahead and will have to keep an open mind both as to the second step and as to the final destination.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27267 – 14.22.1.261

BN – ZZ – DK1

The intuitive life does not always know how or why it acts, for it is often spontaneous and unconscious. But when it does become at times intellectually self-conscious, its power in the world to affect men is heightened, not lessened.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27269 – 14.22.1.263

BN – Z

He can depend on one thing alone to show him the right roads and the right master. It is intuition.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27274 – 14.22.1.268

BN – Z

A man's life will be less troubled and his happiness more secured, if his reason governs his body and his intuition governs his reason.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27275 – 14.22.1.269

BN – X – D

If a man acts according to intuitive wisdom, all will go well with him. This is not to say that he will be free from external misfortunes. But if they come, they will be of the unavoidable kind and therefore less in number than if they included those of his own direct making. And even the others will be turned to profit in some way by the search for their underlying meanings, so that although humanity calls them evil, he will nevertheless gain some inner good from them.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27276 – 14.22.1.270

BN – ZZ

If he is sensitive enough and can touch the intuitive element within himself, either deliberately by sheer power of deeply introspective concentration or spontaneously by immediate acceptance of its suggestive messages, his decisions will be filled with utter conviction and followed with resolute determination.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27277 – 14.22.1.271

BN – ZZ – K

He may be sure of this, that whatever action the Overself's leading causes him to take will always be for his ultimate good even though it may be to his immediate and apparent detriment.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27278 – 14.22.1.272

BN – ZZ – D

There is the feeling of being led, but not the ability to see where, and to what, one is being led.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27279 – 14.22.1.273

BN – ZZ

To the degree that the intuitive element can displace all others for the rulership of his inner life, to that degree can a healing and guiding calm displace the emotion of moods and commotion of thought.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27280 – 14.22.1.274

BN – Z

The most satisfying proofs will come to him that the Overself is really guiding the course of his outer life and really inspiring the course of his inner life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27281 – 14.22.1.275

BN – ZZ – D

There will be decisions that he does not think out logically, moves that he does not plan calculatingly. Yet the sequence of further events will prove the one to be right, the other wise. For they will have come intuitively.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27282 – 14.22.1.276

BN – ZZ – D

He may have no idea how to get out of his predicament. Yet suddenly he will make some unreasoned and unpremeditated act which will do this for him.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27283 – 14.22.1.277

BN – ZZ

His best moves are mostly the unplanned ones.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27284 – 14.22.1.278

BN – Z

He would be wise to do nothing drastic unless there is a clear and positive urge from the deepest part of being approving the deed.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27285 – 14.22.1.279

BN – ZZ

Such efforts will eventually open the way for intuition to come into outer consciousness and, absorbing all lesser elements, give him the great blessing of its guidance.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Fruits of living intuitively

#27286 – 14.22.1.280

BN – Z

Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a grain of mustard seed, which was a simile among the Jews for anything exceedingly small. Why did he do so? Because, in its first onset, the Kingdom is not an experience but an intuition—and the latter begins as an exceedingly faint and tiny leading.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27287 – 14.22.1.281

B_11 – P – D

Whereas we can reach the intellect only through thinking, we can reach the spirit only through intuition. The practice of meditation is simply the deepening, broadening, and strengthening of intuition. A mystical experience is simply a prolonged intuition.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27288 – 14.22.1.282

BN – Z – DEK1*

It is important that the feeling of "inward drawing" which comes to him at times be at once followed up, whenever possible, by a withdrawal from external affairs for a few minutes and a concentration on what the feeling leads to. This practice is like a thread which, if followed up, will lead to a cord, that to a rope, and so on. Thus he will benefit by the grace which is being shed upon him, and not turn away unheedingly. But the mind, at the beginning, leaves this intuitional plane all too quickly, so extreme vigilance is called for to bring it back there.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27290 – 14.22.1.284

BN – Z – DEK

What is more private, more intimate, than intuition? It is the only means they possess wherefrom to start to get mystical experience, glimpses, true enlightenment. Yet they insist on seeking among those who stand outside them, among the teachers, for that which must be searched after and felt inside themselves.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27291 – 14.22.1.285

BN – Z – D

The teaching that is most worthwhile comes directly from your own inner being, not from another’s.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27293 – 14.22.1.287

B_07 – P – D

To develop these brief intuitions and bring them to maturity in lengthier moods, is his task.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27294 – 14.22.1.288

BN – Z

That which guides him to the god within his own being, that slender thread of intuitive feeling and intelligence, may at first appear and disappear at intervals.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27295 – 14.22.1.289

BN – Z – D

At first intuition is like a frail thread, almost impalpable, of which he is just faintly aware; but if he heeds it, rivets attention stubbornly to it, the visitations come more and more often. If he follows the thread to its source, the message becomes clearer, stronger, precise.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27296 – 14.22.1.290

BSG_5 – P – D

If you can attentively trace this subtle feeling back to its own root, you will get a reward immeasurably greater than it seemed to promise.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27297 – 14.22.1.291

BN – X – D

It is only by constant use that intuition can mature into mystical enlightenment.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27298 – 14.22.1.292

BN – X – D

If one learns to cultivate these brief intuitive moments aright, there can develop out of them in time mystical moods of much longer duration and much deeper intensity. Still later, there could come to maturity the ripe fruit of all these moods—an ecstatic experience wherein grace descends with life-changing results.

Inspiration and the Overself > Intuition the Beginning > Intuition and the Glimpse

#27299 – 14.22.1.293

BN – X – D

Turning to the meaning of that word "inspiration," what more can one say than that it is "in-breathing"—the in-breathing of a spiritual quality that raises a work or a person above the common order of things? I do not mean a work is inspired when it is cheaply glamorous, or that a man is inspired when he is rhetorically aggressive, or that a mind is inspired when it indulges in clever intellectual jugglery. It is my standpoint that all inspired art is the expression at most or a product at least of spiritual experience, although the latter may not be well understood by its experiencer. The experience must come first. Art is movement and noise, whereas the spirit out of which it arises is hushed stillness and invulnerable silence.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27300 – 14.22.2.1

BN – Z – K

When the goddess Athena, in Greek mythology, says that "some things you will think of for yourself, and others a god will put into your heart," this is her way of describing what we, more simply, would call inspiration.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27301 – 14.22.2.2

BN – ZZ – D

Only the direct experience of this exalted state will supply the sense of actuality and the feeling of vividness in spiritual writing.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27302 – 14.22.2.3

BN – Z

When this exalted feeling is transferred to the intellect and there turned into thought, whether for expression in words for one's own understanding or for communication to others, it is termed a truth. In this form it becomes a source of renewed inspiration, a help in darker times, and a guide to live by in ordinary times.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27303 – 14.22.2.4

BN – Z

Inspiration can come to any person. It is not reserved for artists and mystics alone.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27304 – 14.22.2.5

BN – Z

When intuition expresses itself through, or enters into, the creative arts, we call it inspiration. The two are the same in root, but different in leaf.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27305 – 14.22.2.6

BN – Z

It would be absurd to believe that the creative power of inspiration exhausts itself with the arts alone. It can appear in any and every kind of human activity, in the making of a home or of a decision.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27306 – 14.22.2.7

BN – Z

There is a hidden light within man himself. Sometimes its glow appears in his most beautiful art productions, his loftiest religious revelations, his most irreproachable moral decisions.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27308 – 14.22.2.9

BN – X – D

None of us can play with the pen for some years, or wield the painter's brush, or practise any of the arts, without in time letting our minds dwell on the processes of inspiration. The mysteries of man's being must then necessarily occupy us. And if we dare to be truly frank in our facing of the self, if we will put aside preconceived notions and ready-made theories in order to watch what really happens during those processes, we discover our feet upon the verge of a great discovery. For we shall discover—if we are both patient enough and yet persistent enough—that there is a Source within us which promises astonishing possibilities to the human race. That Source is loosely called the soul.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27310 – 14.22.2.11

BN – X – DEK

Great importance is to be placed on the guidance to be got from what psychoanalysis calls the unconscious elements within man. How many a prominent orator's delivery during public speeches shows that when he speaks out of his head he is quite undistinguished and uninspiring, whereas when he speaks out of his heart, without previous preparation and under the sway of his innermost feeling, he strongly impresses and affects his audience.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27312 – 14.22.2.13

BN – ZZ

It happens on a plane above men's heads; most of them don't know of it explicitly at the moment. Yet they are truly rendering service through being used as channels.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27313 – 14.22.2.14

BN – Z – D

There are moods or periods when the ideas stream through his mind in swift succession or come in slow stately revelations.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27314 – 14.22.2.15

BN – ZZ

What is true of the world's work is true also of the arts. The secret of inspired action is also the secret of inspired art. The temporary inspirations of the artist can become permanent, if he or she will take the divine path. Intermittent inspiration develops ultimately into continuous contact with the sublime, when genius discovers the mysterious source which inspires it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27315 – 14.22.2.16

BN – Z – DEK

He is as intensely alive in the spirit as most men are insensely alive in the flesh.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Inspiration

#27316 – 14.22.2.17

BN – ZZ

To the extent that we can keep and hold our awareness of this divine consciousness, we can also express something of its knowledge and power.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27318 – 14.22.2.19

BN – Z – D

Once "tuned in," the longer you can stay with the Overself, the greater the depth penetrated; and this in turn means the more general benefit will be gained, the more creativity will be possible in ideas, in arts, and in intuitions.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27319 – 14.22.2.20

BN – X – D

The glimpse becomes the creative source, the inspirer, of his intellectual or aesthetic pursuits—if he is an artist or writer—or of his moral aspirations and conduct if he is not. First there is the turning-within and opening to that which is his finest being; then there is the reversal of direction, the turning-without and giving or serving his small or large world. This humanistic way is a grace for those whom it touches.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27320 – 14.22.2.21

BN – Z

There are men who may be high in talent but low in character. Notice that I use the word talent. I can not believe that it is possible to possess true inspiration and yet deny it or fail to express it in one's conduct.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27321 – 14.22.2.22

BN – ZZ – K1

What he gets from these delectable inner meetings he tries to give the world in whatever way his situation allows, in an artistic creation or a simple smile, or otherwise.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27323 – 14.22.2.24

BN – ZZ

To the extent that a man is conscious of the presence of the Overself, he becomes inspired. To the extent that he is also talented in any of the arts, his work also becomes inspired.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27324 – 14.22.2.25

BN – ZZZ – DK1

If he feels this presence, and can do his work without deserting it, then his is a sacred function, no matter whether it be an artist's or an artisan's.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27325 – 14.22.2.26

BN – ZZ – K1

Even while working in an office or factory or field, a man is not prevented from continuing his search for the inner mind. The notion that this quest requires aloofness from the commonplace utilitarian world is one which philosophy does not accept. Distraction and action are not so mutually inclusive as we may think. The student may train himself to maintain calm and serene poise even in the midst of strenuous activity, just as he also avails himself of the latest discoveries of scientific technique and yet keeps his mind capable of browsing through the oldest books of the Asiatic sages. He can discipline himself to returning from meditation to the turmoil, go anywhere, do anything, if truth is carried in the mind and poise in the heart. He may learn to live in reality at all times. The sense of its presence will need no constant renewal, no frequent slipping into trance, no intermittent escape from the world, if he follows the philosophic threefold path.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27326 – 14.22.2.27

BN – Z – K1

It is not enough to obey and follow the prompting which draws him inward through formal meditation. It is equally needful to sustain spiritual activity through all the many hours of external business, to learn the art of not being of the world although in it, to achieve the wonderful state of inspired action.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27327 – 14.22.2.28

BN – ZZ – D

The whole of life must be inspired, not merely action alone, not merely thinking alone, not merely feeling alone. Inspired living must be the keynote of the disciple's efforts.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27328 – 14.22.2.29

BN – Z

He will carry its inspiration into all his activities. Every department of his life will be divinized.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27329 – 14.22.2.30

BN – Z

If his inspiration is of the highest kind, it will be a fruitful one. It will manifest in external achievement by the personal ego and in altruistic service, enlightenment, and uplift of the world community in which he lives.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27330 – 14.22.2.31

BN – X – D

Those critics who assert that we have lost our mystical values because we teach that mystical contemplation is not an end in itself but rather a means to action, have not understood our teaching. The kind of action we refer to is not the ordinary one. It is something higher than that, wiser than that, nobler than that. It is everyday human life divinized and made expressive of a sublime FACT. We have indeed often used the phrase "inspired action" to distinguish it from the blind and egotistic kind. He who practises it does not thereby desert the contemplative path. This inner life is kept deep full and rich, but it is not kept refrigerated and isolated. He reflects it deliberately into the outer life to satisfy a twofold purpose. First, to be on the earth, so far as he can, what he is in heaven. Second, to work actively for the liberation of others. This cannot be achieved by inertia and indifference—which are virtues to the mystic but defects to the philosopher.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27331 – 14.22.2.32

BN – ZZ – K1

He finds within himself not merely a passive repose but also a veritable fountain of wisdom and strength, inspiration and bliss.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27333 – 14.22.2.34

BN – X – D

When spirituality shines through a man, it makes him great, even though he be bereft of talent in any other direction.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27334 – 14.22.2.35

BN – X – D

It is not quite correct to say that in literary inspiration the pen races ahead of the mind, that thoughts are too swift and too numerous to get written down without missing any. This is one kind of inspiration. There is another wherein thoughts are slow and few, but deeper.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27337 – 14.22.2.38

BN – Z

The priest and the guru, the artist and the writer have to carry a small flock or a million minds with them by means of their work. The talent if they possess it is theirs, but the inspiration comes from a higher level.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27338 – 14.22.2.39

BN – X – D

The disappointed escapist seeks compensations for life, the inspired activist seeks life.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27339 – 14.22.2.40

BN – Z

Whether it comes as an inspirational idea or as an intuitive feeling, it should be treasured and nurtured and developed.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27341 – 14.22.2.42

BN – Z

A good deal of achievement goes on in the silent solitude of our own hearts, unnoticed and unknown to other men; one day it blossoms into irresistible action, and then the world wonders why.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27342 – 14.22.2.43

BN – Z – D

We fulfil life when we find ourselves in the divine presence unendingly, aware of it and expressing it.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > Its expression and development

#27344 – 14.22.2.45

BN – Z – D

Finding the Overself is one thing, and the first thing, but letting it take over is another thing.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > As act of Overself

#27345 – 14.22.2.46

BN – Z – D

The first reality of universal existence must become the first thought of human consciousness. Only then is our life rightly orientated and properly sustained. All action will then become sublime, inspired, and wise, leading to the true success at all times and despite adverse outward appearances.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > As act of Overself

#27346 – 14.22.2.47

BN – Z

It is one secret of the inspired individual that he lets himself be led: he does not try to do with his ego what can be better done for him by the intuition. But this will be possible only if he pauses and waits for the inner leading to come to him.

Inspiration and the Overself > Inspiration > As act of Overself

#27347 – 14.22.2.48

BN – ZZ – D