39/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE

6.
CONSCIOUSNESS.

The more we study the world of externals, the objective world we imagine to exist distinctly outside of us, the more we appropriate, build into our thought ideas presented to us objectively, the larger our conception of life grows, and the more we realize of selfhood subjectively; and, conversely, the more we think, expand mentally, the larger and richer our outer world grows.

We note such an intimate correspondence between the two worlds that it is at once evident that they sustain very close relations to each other, and that some underlying bond joins them. The superficial thinker fancies that the world he sees as external is quite independent of his inner, subjective world; but the moment his thought forces come into a vital relation with the outer order, he is conscious that the two are united. All separating distinctions disappear, and the two are merged in one.

Every man’s outer world reflects his thought images the self he knows inwardly. The self and its image are one; but one can only see himself outwardly in the reflection. In the deeper sense, then, he perceives nothing entirely apart from himself; the self is all and in all.

When, in some moment of conceit, he fancies that he has attained to a standard that represents the full proportions of his selfhood, forthwith there arises before the mind a vision of a larger self, embracing the former ideal. As we continue to study our outer world, a world that at first seems to consist of innumerable independent selves its apparent variety and differentiation are found to be unified in the life of one Self.

As our thought goes out and comes into contact with the world of symbols, their aspect changes. As they come within the scope of our comprehension, their deeper significance is found to be internal rather than external. We can only recognize (recognize or know again) what we have already known, even though it be remotely.

Evidently this process may be continued indefinitely. So long as anything in our world appears to be severed from vital connection with our thought, we may continue to merge the external in the internal, to include the objective within the subjective, by enlarging our sphere of self-consciousness. In the last analysis, then, we come into contact with the real essence of things through self-consciousness. The stronger and deeper this consciousness, the more closely we approximate to perfect knowledge of what is real.