16/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE
Specters that seem very real in the dark, vanish in the light. A balloon rises because the specific gravity of the substance with which it is inflated is less than that of the medium in which it floats. Just so must one overcome the world by cultivating the quality of consciousness which renders him superior to the lower attractions of life.
Paul recognized this principle when he said: “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.” It is not by putting forth greater exertions, through titanic efforts of the will, that the most satisfactory results are achieved, but by rising superior to lower conditions. Consciousness is the basis of all experience. If one is to realize freedom in the truest sense, he must first become conscious of freedom.
When the spiritual view-point is comprehended, struggle and perplexity cease. A clear vision of the Higher Self enables one to triumph over the lower without opposition. He need not combat the lower nature; he has simply to ignore its demands. It has no power except that with which his finite thought endows it. He may have so long clothed it with the semblance of power that its fictitious claims seem to him valid; but, as soon as he ceases to recognize them, its ascendency is at an end.
By living on a higher plane, conflict with lower forced ceases. The method of offering resistance encourages and stimulates the personal self he is seeking to bring into subjection, and leads to a battle on the finite plane. It is recorded that when the Syrian hosts encamped around the city in which Elisha dwelt, his servant was overcome with fear.
But Elisha prayed that the young man’s eyes might be opened. “And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw; and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” He who lives “as seeing the invisible” is conscious of power that is altogether unrecognized by finite vision.
Even the world of mechanical energy yields its supremacy over us when we discover our correct relation to it. Ingenuity overcomes obstacles that seem insurmountable to the uninitiated mind. Inventive genius renders man superior to the exacting demands of brute force. As he perceives more clearly the nature of the world with which he has to deal, he is enabled to achieve greater results with far less expenditure of energy than formerly.
As a rule the man who toils the most arduously, who puts forth the most strenuous exertions, accomplishes least. Attention, calculation, judgment, count for far more than blind effort and persistency. A ponderous balance wheel, when finely poised, may be set in motion by a touch of the finger tip. The resources of nature are gradually being harnessed, and pressed into service to minister to human necessities.
Gravitation, chemical affinity, electricity, heat, light and other less subtle modes of energy, are beginning to obey man’s dictates and contribute to his satisfaction. Knowledge is power. Intelligence is superior to brute force. As man’s consciousness evolves, the world of mechanical energy yields to his mandates.