William Atkinson - The Complete Works of William Walker Atkinson

Our super-conscious faculties are our only means of communication with the Centre of Life—with Higher Powers. Through them come the messages to the Soul. There are times when, through these faculties, our vision penetrates beyond the boundaries of personality, and our souls blend with and commune with the Divine. Through the channels of the super-conscious are we made acquainted with the Real Self— through them are we made aware of the I am. Through the same sources are we made cognizant of the Oneness of things— of our relation to the Whole. Through them are we made sure of the existence and presence of God—of the immortality of the Soul. The only answers to the vital questions of Life and Existence are received through these channels.

In the inmost recesses of the super-consciousness is found the resting-place of the Soul—the holy of holies. Here dwells the Divine Spark which is our most precious inheritance from God—that which we mean when we say “the Spirit”. It is the soul of the Soul—the centre of the Real Self. Words cannot convey an idea of the real meaning of the Spirit—to understand it one would need to understand God, for it is a drop from the Spirit Ocean—a grain of sand from the shores of the Infinite—a particle of the Sacred Flame. It is that part of us, toward the full recognition and consciousness of which, all this process of evolution, growth, development and unfoldment is tending. When we learn to recognize the existence and reality of the Spirit, it will respond by sending us flashes of enlightenment— illumination. As one grows in spiritual development he becomes accustomed to this voice from within, and learns to distinguish it from messages from the different planes of the mind—learns to follow its leadings, and allows it to work through him for good.

Some men have so far developed in spiritual understanding that they live the life of the Spirit—are led by the Spirit. The Spirit is influencing all of us much more than we are aware, and we can bring ourselves into a conscious realization of its leadings if we will but trust it, and look toward it for light. I cannot attempt to go further into this subject, as it is something for which one fails to find words wherewith to describe it. Those who have awakened to an awareness of it, will understand what I mean, and those who have not yet been made conscious of it would simply misunderstand me if I were to attempt to state an awful inward feeling foreign to their experience.

The Spirit is that within man which closest approaches the Centre—is nearest to God. And when one becomes in close conscious touch with it he feels his nearness to the Universal Presence—he feels the touch of the Unseen Hand.

Many of you who read these words have had moments in your lives, when you were for the moment conscious of being in the awful presence of the Unknown. These moments may have come whilst you were engaged in religious thought— while reading a poem bearing a message from one soul to another—when on the ocean and impressed with a sense of the greatness of the Universe—in some hour of affliction when human words seemed but mockery—in a moment when all seemed lost and you were forced to seek comfort from a power higher than yourself. But no matter how or when these experiences have come to you, there was no mistaking their reality—no doubting the abiding sense of peace, strength, and love of which you became conscious. In these moments you were conscious of the Spirit within you, and of its close relationship with the Center. Through the medium of the Spirit, God makes himself known to Man.

Table of Content

Whence come I? Whither go I? What am I? What is the object of my existence?—Questions asked in all ages, in this and other worlds—The question absolutely unanswered for most men—Struggles for freedom—Climbing the mountain of Knowledge—The task begun, not ended—The spiritual hunger—Bread, not stones—The want is the prophecy of the means of satisfying it—The intellect will not answer the Riddle of the Universe—The answer must come from within—The Something Within—The development of Spiritual Consciousness—The intelligent Faith which knows, not merely understands—Unexplored regions of the Soul—Not contrary to intellect, but beyond it—A new world of knowledge opened out before the mental gaze—Joy insuperable.

WHAT AM I? Whence come I? Whither go I? What is “

the object of my existence?” These questions have been asked by Man in all ages—all countries—all climes. And if the countless worlds surrounding the millions of suns in the Universe are inhabited—and I believe that they are—these questions have been asked there—have perhaps been answered by some of the dwellers of worlds wherein Life is manifested in higher forms than we have yet attained in this. All men have asked themselves this question—that is, all men who have attained to the stage where their minds recognized that a problem existed, for many men seem unaware of the existence of an unanswered problem—their mental vision is not clear enough for them to recognize that there is anything which needs an answer. To most of us the question remains absolutely unanswered—the smallest detail of the inquiry remains unsolved. We have cried aloud in agony of mind—have shouted to the Infinite a demand that we be told something of ourselves, but nothing comes back to us but the despairing echo of our own cry. As the poet has so pathetically expressed it:

“For what am I?

An infant crying in the night;

An infant crying for the light;

And with no language but a cry.”

We are like the squirrel in the cage, who exhausts himself in travelling the long road of the wheel, only to find himself, at the end of his journey, just where he started. Or worse still, like the newly-caged wild bird, we dash ourselves against the bars of our mental prison, again and again, in our efforts to gain freedom, until at last we lie weak and bleeding, a captive still.

We have sought to climb the mountain of Knowledge, urged on by the thought of the place of blissful rest at the summit. We have toiled wearily up the steep and stony sides, and finally with bleeding hands and tired feet—with body and mind exhausted by our efforts, we reach the summit, and congratulate ourselves upon the ending of our task. But when we look around us, lo! our mountain is but a foothill—far above us, towering higher and higher, rise range after range of the real mountains, the highest peaks being hidden among the clouds.

We have felt that hunger for Spiritual knowledge that transcended the hunger for bread. We have sought this way and that way for the Bread of Life—and found it not. We have asked this authority, and that authority, for the bread that would nourish the Soul, but we were given nothing but the stone of Dogma and Creeds. At last, we sank exhausted, and felt that there was no bread to be had—that it was all a delusion, and a will-o’-the-wisp of the mind—that there was no reality to it. And we wept. But we forgot, that just as the hunger of the body implies that somewhere in the world is to be found that which will satisfy it—that just as the hunger of the mind implies that somewhere is to be found mental nourishment— so the mere fact that this Soul hunger exists , is a sure indication that somewhere there exists that which the Absolute has intended to satisfy it. The want is the proof of the possibility of the fulfillment. The trouble is that we have been seeking outside that which we can find only within . “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

If you prefer to try to solve the Problem of Life—the Riddle of the Universe—by scientific investigation, by exact reasoning, formal thought, mathematical demonstration—by all means follow this method. You will be taught the lesson of the power and the limitations of the human Intellect. You will travel round and round the circle of thought, and will find that you are but covering the ground over and over again. You will find that you have run into the intellectual cul de sac —the blind alley of Logic.