17/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE
Effort of expression diminishes as one’s ideal becomes clearer in the light of the Absolute. The most eloquent orator is frequently unaware of the words he uses. The thought with which his mind is permeated, clothes itself spontaneously in appropriate forms of expression. Even the most ignorant person may be able, under the impulse of some mental stimulus, to express himself in language which under ordinary circumstances would be beyond his control.
In all cases, forms of expression approach perfection to the degree that the mind is filled with the ideal: Two students may pursue the same course at school. One wastes his energies in vainly striving to master problems, for he has not discovered the secret of success;
the other learns naturally, without effort, for the interior channels of his mind are so open that he has free access to the universal storehouse of wisdom. The arbitrary line of separation between his individual mind and the Universal Mind is obliterated so that the inner light is allowed to illumine dry technicalities and cold figures, until they are easy to comprehend.
The principle is operative on all planes of life. Many a skilful hunter will raise his gun and fire in a twinkling at a bird on the wing, with no apparent thought of his aim. One person will mount a bicycle for the first time and ride away confidently, like a veteran; another will practise for weeks in fear and trembling before he gains sufficient courage to venture timidly forth on the highway.
A player seats himself at the piano. He instinctively feels the presence of the Absolute. It illumines his thought, transforming it into an ideal of harmony which, standing revealed before his mind, directs his fingers to the proper keys.
His ideal is then realized. In like manner, poet, philosopher, painter, sculptor, architect, business man, and mechanic realize their ideals. Genius is capacity to realize ideals by allowing the Absolute Power to radiate through one’s finite life. The character of the forms one employs, is determined by his individual thought-tendencies, mental habits.
The greatest artists, composers, thinkers, and creators in every sphere, need only to concentrate their thought, and, looking through it toward the Absolute, to allow it to be expressed spontaneously. Handel declared that while composing The Messiah, he “did see the heavens opened and the great God himself sitting upon his throne.”
We need not wonder that the entire score occupied only twenty-five days in writing. Paracelsus says: “A man comes into possession of creative power by uniting his own mind with the Universal Mind, and he who succeeds in doing so will be in possession of the highest possible wisdom.”