6/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE
Conceptions are at best only suggestive. They cannot comprehend the Truth, for that is infinite and transcends all possibility of perfect formulation. They can only indicate the direction in which it lies, the atmosphere in which it exists. They are its ever-changing body, which the dogmatist mistakes for the soul. They are its appearance, not its reality. The forms of our conceptions must necessarily be deduced from experience.
At the surface of life is manifold expression in infinite variety, apparently without unity of source, or direction of purpose. If we dwell upon the surface, we are borne around, knowing neither whence nor whither. Phenomena seem the only realities. But as we turn inward and seek its center, obeying a spiritual attraction, we begin to discern the unreality of phenomena.
Only when the universal center becomes the individual’s center, does he find perfect repose. Past and future are lost in an eternal present. Existence seems no longer fragmentary, but one complete whole. Confusion, contradiction and inharmony no longer prevail. The most intricate problems reach a simple solution.
From this standpoint both center and circumference are perceivable, and the whole is comprehensible; while from the surface neither circumference nor center is recognizable, and the mind knows not even its own relative position.
At the center alone is absolute knowledge possible. There the individual comes into harmony with the Universal and shares its consciousness. Thought and feeling are no longer distinct experiences, but are merged in realization. We know what truth is because we experience the Truth.
This was the standpoint of Jesus. He spoke with absolute authority: “I and my Father are one;” “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” The Pharisees, who judged according to appearances from the outer instead of the inner standpoint, were astonished at his wisdom: “Whence hath this man knowledge, never having learned?” To the dogmatist of today the idea of wisdom which is independent of learning is just as incomprehensible.
He insists that it must bear the stamp of the schools, or be accompanied by some external authority, in order to be genuine. The great world still thinks of truth as something to be known outwardly, instead of appreciated inwardly. It sees it only in conceptions; it does not realize it.