William Atkinson - The Essential Works of William Walker Atkinson - 50+ Books in One Edition

The awakened Spirit is roused to the recognition and realization of itself in man, and, as a great teacher expresses it, "it hews open the path, as the lightning flash splits the darkness,… dissolves doubts, cuts knots of chronic impossibility, melts circumstances, pierces shadows like a flash of glory, dashes through the jungle of appearances like the horn of the unicorn. It is the sword of the Spirit of truth, ‘the flash of the will that can.'"

In this perception, and this alone, is to be found the secret of Creative Thought of the mind of man. Make it your own, your very own. Let the warrior within you fight the battles of life for and through you, for he is your Real Self, the Abiding Spirit which is perceived as YOURSELF at the last.

MASTERY.

Man is Master of his Being in the degree of his recognition, realization, and manifestation of his Identity with Spirit. In the degree that he allows Spirit to unfold and manifest itself through him in the directions of Conscious Recognition of the Real Self,—which is Spirit,—so will be the degree of his Mastery. As Spirit awakens to self-consciousness within him, it will raise him up to as yet undreamed-of heights of attainment and mastery.

In the above few words is to be found the key to the demonstration of those who have awakened to the Something Within,—the experience of Inner Being, which has always been known to the wise of the race. Many have stumbled unawares upon this great truth of Being, and have manifested its power without being aware of the nature of the Something Within which has manifested its power and glory in their soul.

It is as if Spirit had been indulging in a dream, imagining itself to be John Jones or Mary Smith, and then gradually awakens to the realization that these are simply forms of disguise or masks used in the Dramatization of the Universe. The awakening Spirit gradually asserts itself and manifests its power as its true consciousness increases and grows clear. This, in effect, is what the evolving soul of man is doing. From simple consciousness it has passed on through many stages into self-consciousness, and is now proceeding to Cosmic Consciousness of its Identity with All.

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STATEMENT: SPIRIT identifies Itself with those of Its characterizations which demonstrate their ability to consciously Identity themselves with It. The conscious recognition of such Identity by the Intellect constitutes the Perception of Truth; the conscious realization of it by the Intuition constitutes Illumination; the conscious manifestation and demonstration of it by Volition and Ideation constitutes the Mastery of Being.

THE MESSAGE OF TRUTH.

In the above statement is announced the Message of the Perception of Truth, of Illumination, of the Mastery of Being. It is the highest Message possible of delivery to man. In it is contained the gist and essence of all esoteric and occult teaching. Book after book may be written to elaborate and illustrate this Truth; but the essence ever remains the same, for it is the very TRUTH of TRUTHS.

THE PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.

In the preceding chapters we have sought to bring to the student the first stage of the conscious recognition of Infinite Identification—the conscious recognition by the Intellect, which constitutes the Perception of Truth. To this end the axioms embodying the highest report of the reason have been presented to you, and you have been invited to make them your own. The practice and habitual employment of the Axioms of reality will exercise and develop the Intellect to the point where the absolute conscious recognition of Spirit becomes a fact of your mental being.

But the above statement mentions the existence of two succeeding stages—that of conscious realization by the Intuition, and conscious manifestation and demonstration by Volition and Ideation. These are the stages of Illumination and Mastery, respectively. Let us now consider them.

INTUITION.

The statement announces that the conscious realization of the identity with Spirit by the Intuition constitutes Illumination. Let us pause a moment to consider what Intuition is and how one may realize Truth by means of it.

"Intuition" is defined as "direct apprehension or cognition; immediate knowledge, as in perception or consciousness involving no reasoning process; perception by the mind immediately and without the intervention of argument or testimony." The term was first used in the Scholastic Philosophy of many centuries ago, where it signified the means whereby man obtained a knowledge of God without the need of the reasoning faculties. It afterward passed into general philosophy, where it was used to indicate a supposed elemental knowledge of certain general facts and truths of the universe. In a closer usage it was employed to designate a supposed faculty of the mind, possessed by a favored few, which was superior to reason and which enabled its possessors to philosophize in a manner impossible to the common man who depended solely upon reason.

REASON VS. INTUITION.

Modern philosophy, however, and modern psychology in particular, have been inclined to deny the validity of the so-called Intuitive Faculties of man. It is now generally held that the so-called intuitions are the products of evolution and heredity and are akin to race-memory; in short, Intuition is held to be identical with instinct. Innate ideas are denied upon the same grounds. The general philosophic thought of to-day holds that reason is the only source of knowledge possible to man, and echoes the words of Jami, the Sufi poet:—

"And first with Reason, which is also best;

Reason that rights the wanderer, that completes

The imperfect; Reason that resolves the knot

Of either world, and sees beyond the veil.

"For Reason is the fountain spring of old

From which the prophets drew, and none beside.

Who boasts of other inspiration, lies;

There are no other prophets than the wise."

ESOTERIC TEACHING.

But in the occult and esoteric teaching of all ages there is ever found the insistent claim that man possesses certain faculties or powers of intuitive perception, not adapted to receiving reports of the objective world, but which may and do receive reports from one's own inner nature and being which are impossible to the sense organs or the perception arising therefrom. Such teachings hold that man is able to turn his mental gaze inward, as well as outward, and thus to obtain reliable and valid reports of his own inner nature and being, which may afterward be considered by the reason and deductions made therefrom. As we have said, philosophy and science have frowned upon this idea and have declared it to be but vain imagining. But there has recently arisen in the philosophical firmament a new philosopher of the first magnitude, who positively asserts the existence of Intuition in man and declares that there is a certain knowledge possible to man only through the exercise of Intuition, the reason being unable to explore the field of such knowledge. This philosopher of the revolutionary idea is Henri Bergson, whose work is now attracting the attention of the world of philosophy.

THE NEW PHILOSOPHY.

Bergson claims that Truth is known to man only through the interaction of Intellect and Intuition. He claims that Intellect informs us only regarding material things; Intuition informs us only regarding the inner nature and facts of life and being. He claims that the Intellect is a nucleus formed by a contraction or narrowing of the power of consciousness, and that around it is a fringe of more comprehensive consciousness; in the latter the power of Intuition lies. The Intellect, he says, has been constructed by the evolutionary life forces to serve the practical purposes of the creatures possessing it, and that its very limitations add to its usefulness in its own particular field. Bergson insists that the Intellect is neither supreme nor absolute, not even the only source of knowledge. Intuition is held not to be compared with the Intellect so far as the practical knowledge of the objective world is concerned, our practical knowledge being almost entirely intellectual. But in its own field Intuition far surpasses the Intellect and gives us knowledge utterly unknown to the latter. Bergson, however, claims that, while the knowledge reported by Intuition is perfect in its nature, it is limited in its scope. For, as he says, "There are things that the Intellect alone is able to seek but that by itself it will never find. Those things Intuition alone can find; but it will never seek them of itself."