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THE SOMETHING WITHIN.

Schopenhauer, in advancing his conception of the World-Will, held that the Intellect can never understand or know the Will, the latter being more elemental than reason. He held, however, that the existence of the Will as Ultimate Principle can be perceived in a unique way by turning the mental gaze inward; at the very center of being will be found the Will, and its nature may be understood only by a study of its activities within ourselves. The Hindu philosophers have always held that the Essence of Being—Spirit—may be perceived intuitively by turning inward the perceptive activities by the concentrated exercise of the Will. The pages of the writings of the mystics are filled with instances of the conscious intuitive perception of Union with God, or similar transcendental mental states. So common in the experience of the race is this mental phenomenon that it is everywhere recognized under the name of "Illumination."

MYSTIC ILLUMINATION.

By "Illumination" is meant the illumining or lighting up of the mind by an influx of new knowledge and perception. Those who have attained this stage of Intuition have been known as "The Illuminati," this title having been used by the Rosicrucians and other organizations of mystics. Illumination is generally held to be a strange, mystic experience or inrush of new knowledge. Such is the conception of the mystics, and such is the conception of the idea of "Cosmic Consciousness" of which so much has been heard during the past decade. This form of Illumination has been common in all phases of religious thought and practice, and even outside of religious bodies. Many of the Saints of all religions have recited instances of it; while, on the other hand, men like Tennyson and Whitman have testified to similar experiences. The underlying experience common to all those relating the strange happening is that of a sudden sense of "Oneness with God or Being." This sense of Oneness has been variously interpreted by the members of the several religious beliefs favored by those experiencing it, but its universality takes it out from creed interpretation or sect possession and raises it to a much more exalted plane. Maurice Bucke, in his work on "Cosmic Consciousness," claims that it is an inevitable result of the evolution of consciousness in the race, and that all the race eventually will experience it, although at present only a few advanced individuals know it in consciousness. He claims that just as mere sensation was succeeded by simple consciousness, and this later by self-consciousness, so will the latter be succeeded by this universal consciousness in which the individual is consciously identified with the All.

INTELLECTUAL ILLUMINATION.

Apart from these instances of mystic experiences, many careful, conservative, thoughtful men of philosophic tendency and temperament have experienced a gradual unfoldment of some inner faculty of the mind which brought to them a consciousness of an identity with an Underlying Something which they found at the very center of their being, and which was recognized as being something far more elemental, fundamental, and real than the Intellectual Self or Ego. This experience would seem to be analogous to that asserted by Schopenhauer, who asserted that the consciousness of the Ego or "I" of each individual is in reality the "consciousing" of the point of connection or identity with the World-Will, or Spirit. This experience is not the mystic, ecstatic "Union" of religious devotees or poets, but rather the calm "awareness" of the philosophic temperament. And instead of being regarded by those experiencing it as a supernatural or transcendental happening, it is treated as a valid and natural report of some form of inner perception, and is then passed on to the reason for classification and deduction.

"SEEING" AND "FEELING."

The statement makes the distinction between the recognition by the Intellect and the realization by the Intuition, the first resulting in the Perception of Truth and the latter in Illumination. The distinction may well be considered in the terms of certain esoteric teachings in which the recognition by the Intellect is considered as the " seeing " phase of perception, and the realization by the Intuition as the " feeling " phase of the perception. The real, full, perfect, and complete Knowledge of Truth comes only from the combined report of Intellect and Intuition—the recognition joined to the realization . It is only when one both " sees " and " feels " the Truth that he knows the Truth. "Seeing" without the accompanying "feeling" is cold and unsatisfying, the intellect never satisfying the inner longing for Truth; while "feeling" without the "seeing" is likewise unsatisfying, except perhaps to the poet or religious enthusiast, for the outraged Intellect voices its disapproval and gives its owner no peace. It is only when the Intuition and Intellect join hands, when they stand side by side and see the same Truth, that the entire mental being is satisfied and finds peace.

THE COMING OF PEACE.

Some of the wisest of the race, in the older schools of esoteric teaching, have insisted that the only satisfying Illumination is that of "The Illumination of the Intellect by the Intuition," when the power of Intuition is admitted to the Intellect and runs freely over its wires and brings the glow to the lamps of reason. Then and then alone comes that satisfying peace, that calm of "seeing" and rest of "feeling," that "peace which passeth all understanding."

Illumination is the clearing away of the smoke of illusion from the tear-stained eyes of the individual, that he may see what he is in his Real Self. He then perceives not only that he lives and moves and has his being in Spirit, but also that Spirit, in its Totality of Being, lives and moves and has its being in Him. Illumination comes gradually to some, instantaneously to others. It comes to no two alike. It calls men and women in the field, the workshop, the kitchen, as well as in the palace or in the parlor. It respects not position nor condition. It ever calls its own to it. "When the pupil is ready, the Master appears." "Wheresoever I go mine own await me." "Wheresoever I pass mine own know my footsteps and follow me." As a great teacher has said: "And the prophecy is this: That those who shall devotedly and sincerely adopt the message of truth, rationally interpreted, must inevitably perceive the truth, realize the truth whereby immortality, satisfaction, and freedom are secured."

NIRVANA.

An authority, speaking for the Buddhist conception of Spirit, says: "There is a Japanese proverb which says: ‘There are many roads up to the mountain, but it is always the same moon that is seen from the top.' The Japanese themselves, with a liberality worthy of imitation, apply this saying to different forms of religious belief. The mountain may well typify matter, and the summit the highest point on which a climber can stand and maintain his separate individual existence in terms of consciousness drawn from the material world. This peak may be accessible by any religion or without any religion; but Buddhism and its genetically associated systems look beyond. The mountain top is the apotheosis of personal existence, the highest form of consciousness that can be expressed in terms of separate individuality—a sublime elevation where many a pilgrim is content to pause. Below him are the kingdoms; above him are the stars; the kingdoms and stars alike are his. But it is not the end. Deeper than the kingdoms and higher than the stars is the sky that holds them all. And there alone is peace, that peace which the material world cannot give, the peace which passeth understanding trained on material things, infinite and eternal peace, the peace of limitless consciousness unified with limitless will. That peace is NIRVANA!"