Y ou may have wadded up other pieces of paper and tossed
them at the wastebasket without a single further hit, and probably you
shrugged your shoulders and wrote of f the first hit to luck. W ell, it wasn’ t
luck at all. It was simply that you performed the action without the
interference of conscious mind. In ef fect, you allowed the paper to propel
itself at the wastebasket, with yourself as only a medium of impulsion. This
kind of psychic unification of the basket and the paper and the propelling
energy allowed all elements in the action to become “one piece,” and
anything occurring within that unity had to have perfect symmetry and be
absolutely ef fective. Becoming One with Our T asks
 
Now if there is one mind common to all things and exclusive to none, it
follows that we basically are all part of a single or ganism, and our
effectiveness within that or ganism depends upon our recognition of this
fact. As long as we view ourselves as separate selves, we are moved by the
delusion of egoistic desire and thus led into opposition to the will of the
Secret Self. Any action that is conceived in the ego and entered into for
egoistic purposes, if not doomed to failure from the outset, can result in
only mediocre success. Its entire purpose and impulsion arise from a limited
knowledge, set against the ocean of knowledge that is universal mind. W e
learn to do things well by becoming one with them, by so engrossing
ourselves in our tasks that we pick up a sense of unity with them. This sense
of oneness is impossible to the egoistic nature for the simple reason that the
ego itself is a sense of separateness. When we become completely absorbed
in things, we have a true spiritual experience, for by this psychological
transference of self, we plunge deeply into universal mind and become the
work that we are doing. Everyone who has great skill or talent goes daily to
this fount of for getfulness, plunges in and is renewed, and the temple of
their religious worship is their own talent. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If
one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to
live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with unexpected success
in common hours.”
 
Thrusting against Pain
 
All barriers to accomplishment are in the mind. Education itself teaches
limitation, and history establishes a definitive level that suppresses human
aspiration. For years four minutes was thought to be the fastest time that
anyone ever would run the mile, then along came a group of Australianmilers with a new philosophy . They broke down the mental barriers, and
now any number of people have run the mile faster than four minutes. This new philosophy might as easily be applied to any area of human
activity . It is built around the premise of thrusting against pain, on the idea
that pain represents a limitation in the mind. Those who train under this
system drive themselves to run farther than they think they can, asserting
the principle of mind over matter to do away with fatigue. Such a
philosophy releases a human being from all barriers. Nothing is impossible
to us as long as our guiding principle is to surmount each obstacle we
encounter . Directional drive is the most important single factor in achievement. Outstanding boxers are often culled from the social groups that have to
fight hardest to survive. Heads of corporations and government executives
are often born in the most humble circumstances, and their climb to the top
is allied directly to their dedication. Heaven attends those who throw their
hearts into their work. In this absorption they lose their egoistic sense of
self and become clear channels for the ener gy and creativeness of universal
mind. Constant Aspiration
 
The usefulness of goals depends on their ability to remove limitation from
our thinking. W e can exceed ourselves by aiming higher than we have ever
aimed before. It is not the goal that is important; it is the aiming higher . When a goal is reached, it actually becomes a limitation unless replaced by
a higher goal. Those who achieve something and spend any time patting
themselves on the back are nullifying their growth, for when self-
complacency enters the nature, ego grows and the individual stagnates. If
we don’ t try to exceed ourselves, we disintegrate. If we do not try to be
better , it is impossible for us even to stay as good as we are. The dynamicforces of life are growth and decay , and nothing is static; things move in
one direction or the other . A few years ago, a young man emer ged from an automobile accident
paralyzed from the neck down, except for the rudimentary use of the
forefinger of his right hand. As he lay abed and pondered his situation he
resolved to develop some skill with that right forefinger . He had a
typewriter rigged on his bed, with his right arm slung before it so he could
peck at the keys with his forefinger . His initial ef forts were excruciatingly
slow and required great concentration and resolve. He labored for hours to
type a single sentence. As the weeks turned into months he was able to type
a page, then two, finally a dozen or more. After a year he not only was
typing proficiently but was actually sitting up in bed to do it. T oday , he gets
about with crutches and has embarked upon a program of total
rehabilitation. He seems well on the road to recovery . Such tenacity and
purpose might be expected to belong to a very grim person, but this young
man has deep humility and a wry sense of humor . When asked how he has
been able to accomplish such miraculous results, he stated, “I was given
this body , and I banged it up. The least I can do is put it back in the
condition I found it.”
Humans have searched out the trackless wastes of the poles, journeyed to
the depths of the seas, flung themselves miles into the air , and even
journeyed amongst the stars. Who can say that anything is impossible to the
human mind and ef fort? There exists within us a power to imagine a better
world than the one in which we live, and we never cease attempting to find
it. Our imagination should be treated with precious care, for it is the tool of
our liberation from the bonds that hold us. W e can be anything we are
capable of visualizing, do anything we are able to imagine, for the images
that form in our minds inevitably lead us into the work that ef fects their
realization. Inner Acceptance
 Skills ar e developed by faith that one possesses the skill alr eady. This a
priori inner attainment of the skill allows us to act as if it wer e impossible
for us to fail. W e still will go thr ough a period of ineptness, but such
ineptness will not stay with us. W e will surmount all — all fear , all
ineffectuality — for we ar e sustained in all cir cumstances by an inner vision
that we alr eady have accepted as r eality . If we aspir e to an ability , we
become accomplished only after inner acceptance. No one can ever be any
better or gr eater than their mental visualization. If we accept ourselves as
exactly what we alr eady ar e, it becomes impossible for us to impr ove. T o
become better we must think we ar e better , not in the egoistic sense of
thinking that something is our due, but in the wider spiritual sense of
realizing that all things derive fr om the image within. Such psychic
positioning of the ego r eleases it fr om bondage to itself and allows it to
accept on faith the fact of its wider being and effectiveness. Skillfulness is primarily a matter of becoming an instrument for the action
of a greater mind and will. Any egocentric ef fort to dominate the world or
to originate action from the standpoint of the surface mind immediately
raises the problem of the ego controlling itself. Any system of self-control,
inasmuch as it approaches perfect self-control, also approaches perfect self-
frustration, for control implies keeping something from doing what it
normally is disposed to do. The idea of acting in accord with our nature
meets with objections on every hand. T aking the restraints of f human nature
supposedly would be like letting loose a swarm of locusts. Religious and
social groups have adopted the idea that humanity is more a work of the
devil than of God, that our bestial nature must be held in restraint by laws
and inhibitions. Thus duality is forced upon us, the necessity of presenting
one face to the world while living in solitude with another , and it is
responsible for more mental and physical ailments than all the microbes
ever discovered. Be Y ourself
 We present one face to the world and behold another in the privacy of our
rooms, and this knowledge that we are not what the world expects us to be
manifests in a kind of social conscience that makes cowards of us all. Most
of us are afraid to be ourselves. Like chameleons we change colors to suit
our backgrounds. Our opinions are formed by what people expect us to
think; our behavior patterns are based upon how people expect us to
behave; and since we are always thinking in response to outside
circumstances, we scarcely know how we feel at all and never have any
sense of self other than the one reflected in the eyes of others. “To thine own self be true,” wrote Shakespeare, “and it shall follow as the
night the day , thou can’ st not then be false to any man.” It is important to
act in accord with your own nature. When you live sincerely and feelingly ,
you become a pure channel for the expression of the Divine. Each of us is
accorded a unique individuality . As long as that individuality is unhampered
by inhibition and fear , it is capable of expressing something dif ferent and
vital, but when it is restricted and limited by apprehension, it cannot express
itself at all. The dammed-up torrent of universal ener gy then turns upon
itself, and the dual sides of the ego-nature, like the gingham dog and the
calico cat, “eat each other up.”
Countless people are restrained from learning because they are afraid to try . In them is a false pride that is connected directly to the ego, and it will not
let them perform awkwardly because it has no humility , and it will not let
them begin anything and be novices because it cannot stand any idea of
itself that is not better than others. If we can be rid of ego-self and have
accepted that we are only an instrument of divine will and action, we are
able to embark upon the learning of a skill with the utmost humility and
deep indif ference to the opinions of others. W e can be laughed at without
shame; we can be jeered at without ridicule; we can laugh at ourselves; we
can ridicule ourselves; but all the while our vision burns brightly , and we
know that one day we will have the attainment of the skill. W e have no fear ,
for fear is possible only to the ego, and the ego has been subordinated in our
nature. W e embark upon all enterprises with courage, persistence, and faith. Just because we toil endlessly at the door of creation, that door eventually
yields, and marvelous works are wrought through us because our hand is
moved by the Divine. Whatever your aspiration, remember this: the masterof that skill is within you. Those who already possess it are greatest of all. Give over the doing of your work to that master and get yourself out of the
way, and you will find that you are soon performing with consummate
knowledge and skill.OceanofPDF .com 
10
 
Creating Y our Own T alent
 
Creativeness contains a secr et. Cr eative people exhibit a deep psychic
tie with the inscrutable mystery of life. They perform in their work
with the same naturalness as the flower gr ows fr om the soil, for they
have attained to a unity in mental and spiritual r elationships that make
them seem part of the things they ar e doing. The consummate artist
becomes one with their task, so allied with it in movement and being
that it becomes almost impossible to discern wher e the person ends and
the work begins. Carl Jung stated that it was not Goethe who cr eated
Faust as much as it was Faust that cr eated Goethe. One seems
absolutely dependent upon the other since each r epresents the same
thing. Faust is an extension of Goethe, just as Goethe is an extension of
Faust. The Artist Incarnate
 
Talent is an absolute blending of the individual with their work. Paintings of
the great painter become the painter , just as the painter becomes the great
paintings. When we see a person who exhibits a great talent, we know at
once a kind of ecstasy at this manifestation of a supreme mind and skill. All
exhibition of talent is a kind of religious experience to those who behold it,
for it establishes a communion between the Secret Self and the individual. There is a living superforce whose sphere of action is lar gely invisible andoutside the boundaries of our workaday world. There is something more
purposeful than atoms. There is a higher evolved intelligence than any that
is contained within the human brain. There is a door into a world beyond,
which sometimes opens and allows the individual to be seized by strange
potencies tremendously above the level of their personal abilities. When
that happens we see the artist incarnate, the person with a supertalent, who
is able in one sphere of their activity to demonstrate directly to us the
incalculable power and wisdom and beauty of the Divine. The mystery of talented people is that they are rooted directly in universal
mind, that it manifests through them without any restriction or distortion by
the ego. It is not the person who is responsible for their work, but a power
beyond and above them that is manifesting through them, using them as an
instrument. In deepest essence each person is an artist and only comes to
their complete fulfillment as an individual when they get their egoistic
nature out of the way and allow the creative talent of the Divine to work
through them, to accomplish those tasks that can best be done through their
individually honed nature. When we live out our lives focused in the ego
and bound to egoistic desires and satisfactions, it becomes impossible for us
to achieve a spiritual awakening or to fulfill ourselves as creative persons. The world of material things is too much with us. Desires to be better , to
have more, to live in material comfort, blind us to the long reaches of
existence. This little life we live is important not for the creature comforts it
brings but for the search it involves us in. Until we make our primary
purpose the discovery of who we are and where we came from and what
our relationship to life is, we must live out our brief sputtering of the candle
in complete unawareness and blind automatism, following the pressures
that develop in the outer world as they impinge upon our senses. The Cr eative V ision
 
When our inner soul is touched by perception of the creative side of our
nature, we see at once the disaster inherent in a conduct of life based uponmaterial goals. W e see that this thing we have always thought ourselves to
be, our ego, is illusory , that the desires growing out of ego lead us into a
maze of intricate byroads that inevitably will lose our chance at
enlightenment. W e may give up all possessions, all fame, all creature
comforts, so as to be misled no longer , and take up our existence with a
resolve to be motivated in all things through an inner light that proceeds out
of universal mind. Such enforced asceticism allows us to engross ourselves
completely in the service of the Secret Self. John the Baptist prowling the
wilderness in search of his immortal soul is no more an example of it than is
the French painter Gauguin giving up career and family to exile himself on
a South Sea island to paint pictures. Each has been touched by the creative
vision; each must serve it at all costs. When our eyes have been opened to the creative nature of the Divine, we no
longer can help ourselves — we must serve it as an instrument, and nothing
stands in our way . The creative process is impersonal; it seizes the nature
and uses it to the utmost, and the person performs feats of creation far
above anything possible to their normal conscious mind. When this force
truly predominates in our makeup, it monopolizes our ener gy. In the
awakened artist, life is ruled by the subconscious. Conscious intention
means little, and the artist is swept along on subterranean currents in which
they are firmly enmeshed and in which they joyfully participate. Common Consciousness
 
Participation mystique is the secr et of artistic cr eation and consists of a
swallowing up of the individual by the Secr et Self, so that the artist becomes
an outlet for the manifestation of the beauty and variety and infinite
complexity of universal mind. No one truly does a thing well when they do it
with conscious intention. Effectiveness in action is always the r esult of
unthinking naturalness. W e do not come to skill in works thr ough objective
analysis of our action as separate fr om the action of others but thr ough a
complete identification of ourselves with the work to be done. SamuelTaylor Coleridge wr ote, “Fr om my very childhood, I have been accustomed
to abstract, and as it wer e, unr ealize whatever of mor e than common
interest my eyes dwelled on, and then by a sort of transfusion and
transmission of my consciousness to identify myself with an object.”
Participation in the life of another thr ough a mystic medium of common
consciousness is the essence of artistic cr eation. When we affect to do
something thr ough conscious intention and at the ur ging of the separate
and unique desir es of the ego, we ar e performing by the light of one candle
in an ar ena wher e thousands of kilowatts ar e available. W e cannot possibly
create a true and effective work thr ough the limited knowledge and tiny
scope of our conscious mind. All intentioned works of art ar e flat and
useless and depict only clichés and ar e not truly works of art at all but only
a kind of syncr etism of the elements of knowledge available to the ego. Such
effort in writing is journalism; in art, poster painting; in music, dollar
mongering; and those who perform thus, even though masquerading under
the mantle of artist, ar e actually destr oying themselves thr ough
knowledgeable corrupting of their talent. Every one of us has a talent in some area of our nature, as big a talent as has
ever existed, and if this talent has not manifested it is because our egoistic
nature has dammed it up. No matter how long the dam has existed, no
matter how tightly controlled the egoistic nature, the dam can be broken and
the power can be let loose and we can realize the highest level of our talent
and live the life of the artist incarnate. T o turn the eye within and to release
the egoistic nature from selfish desire is the first thing to be done. Once the
whole nature is turned over to a power greater than it is, to be used for
whatever purpose, without aim or intention, then the power comes through,
then we begin to be transformed, performing naturally in all circumstances,
guided correctly in all actions. Psychic Position
 There is tremendous joy in correct psychic positioning of the ego. There is a
feeling of usefulness that comes to us, a rooted certainty in our soul that we
are performing in the best manner possible. This is the feeling of “grace”
that comes to religious people. This is the time of creativity that comes to
artists. This is the period of great productivity that comes to businesspeople. This is the time of superior skill that comes to athletes. Each serves,
performing under the impulsion of an intelligence and talent so vastly
superior to the surface mind that the relationship is accepted as a happy
child follows a loving parent. Of this time of attunement and consequent
creation, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote:
 
One can hardly reject completely the idea that one is the mere incarnation
or mouthpiece or medium of some almighty power . The notion of revelation
describes the condition quite simply; by which I mean that something
profoundly convulsive and disturbing suddenly becomes visible and audible
with indescribable definiteness and exactness. One hears — one does not
seek; one takes — one does not ask who gives: A thought flashes out like
lightning, inevitably without hesitation — I have never had any choice
about it. Everything occurs quite without volition, as if in an eruption of
freedom, independence, power and divinity . It takes courage to push of f into the unknown realms of the subconscious. It
takes daring and boldness to abandon the little ship of egoistic self and
swim to that uncharted island of the Secret Self that lies beyond the
horizon. Many people cling to their egoistic natures as if they might be
saved by them instead of inevitably abandoned. Pain and frustration and
ineffectuality are the only rewards that come to those who follow their ego,
and yet they often cling to their false idol through thick and thin, much as a
drowning person grasps at a straw . Often they have so educated themselves
to the existence of the phantom they worship that even when they see they
are deluded, they cannot bear to part with their ghost. But part they must,
push of f into the uncharted regions of the subconscious they must, for
finally their ego-self abandons them altogether , breaks down and
disintegrates with the disintegration of the body . In the end they realize thatthey must throw themselves upon the mercy and grace of something infinite
and eternal, which caused them to be born in the first place and now causes
them to die. No Daring Is Fatal
 
Accident, perversion, illness, and ineptitude are the lot of the apprehensive. The prize is always to the bold, and the courageous own the universe. But
despite these obvious facts, the majority of people cower in caves and
refuse to abandon the flimsiest security and strike out in quest of the great
and the good. If you have the courage to take a chance, you will not be
abandoned by fate. The universe works on the side of those who aspire. It
gives wings to birds and fins to fish and touches the toes of the tightrope
walker with magic. “No daring is fatal,” wrote the French Surrealist writer
René Crevel. The Secret Self has a cherished place for its torchbearers. Along the tenuous lines of evolution the bold and the brave lead a mighty
advance. An irresistible force proceeds out of those who have courage and
tenacity in their hearts; they cannot be stopped because they are being used
by an infinite and omnipotent power . But those who pull the shells of their
egos about them and refuse either to dare or to aspire are by this
psychological act squeezing the juices of life from their bodies and their
souls; they must inevitably disintegrate because they have refused to grow . To let go of ego and to center oneself in the consciousness of universal
mind is the greatest adventure possible because it means casting of f from
safe shores and voyaging beyond visible horizons. Y et once this initial step
is made, once we cease responding to the material world, once we turn our
minds and bodies and hearts over to the Secret Self, we are astounded at
once by our inner joy and serenity . Only the surface self can know fear , and
once it has been subordinated, so is fear subordinated. The ego has
something to lose only because it sees itself as separate. Once this idea of
separateness has given over to a basic perception of unity , we no longer
know fear because we have nothing to lose. A sense of being a part of allthings and a part of all life is a psychic condition that produces the most
indescribable satisfaction. It is the ecstasy reported by mystics, the sense of
creativity reported by artists, the religious revelation reported by the saints. It is denied no one, is possible to all. Once it comes to us, it provides a
springboard for the development of a talent by which we are able to express
the infinite nature of the Divine. Metaphysical Adventur e
 
Religious revelation is exactly the same thing as creative activity . They are
both metaphysical adventures. They involve the acquisition of a total
instead of a partial view of the universe. They are out of time and space and
individuality and are centered in eternal terms and whole significances. Talent develops in us when our spiritual awakening has begun because
talent is inherent in each of us, and the purpose of life is that we be creative. When the spiritual awakening is true, so will the talent be true, and not
compulsive or obsessional, allowing us to perform our work out of sheer
joy, dropping our fruits like a ripe tree. It then becomes possible for us to
obey our instincts and intuitions and not to be inhibited in our actions by
what others expect of us. W e get near the heart of truth because we see the
sham and hypocrisy that are bound to partiality . We subordinate this
partiality completely in all our actions and thought, and the talent that is
visited upon us is the talent of something beyond us. Art speaks to us in symbols of the universality of our true being. By it we
perceive a portion of that ecstasy and unity from which we have sprung. By
it we are able to achieve an inkling of the great destiny that awaits
humanity . Someday we will become thoroughly awakened spiritually and
consequently completely religious, not just believers as a few people are
now, but knowers, causers, prime movers, thoroughly enlightened, gods in
fact, even as now in potential. The attitude that results from the discovery of
this inherent talent is not one of intentioned action or thought, but one that
looks for discovery . The creative writer does not take up pen with an idea of“making” a certain thing, but only to see what will come through them and
manifest itself on paper . Those who truly use their talent are able to do so
only because they let it use them. The correct mental attitude is that
whatever is there will come through and need neither be started nor
stopped. Y ou do not have to know what is coming or what it will look like
but simply to have an open mind and let it through. Never even bother to
look at it closely , for if you do, you may think you know what it is, and by
that mental fixation you will make it static and it no longer will grow and be
flexible and creative. All that is great and good and lasting springs out of
the subconscious processes of the Secret Self, and when we are moved by
our greater mind we exhibit the talents that are ours. God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone,
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow bone. — WILLIAM BUTLER YEA TS
 
Creative Labor
 
A thousand faces has the Secret Self, approached by a thousand doors, and
when one is opened and that face beheld, there bursts through the individual
a torrent of creativeness, a kind of supertalent. Partial is the human being,
barely aware, a surface manifestation of unlimited realms of subconscious
intelligence, but there is a path by which each of us may penetrate universal
mind, and when we do, we create our own talent, depicting for the world
some particular aspect of the Divine. No one is denied talent except by
themself. When they allow their consciousness to be hemmed in by the ego,they are unable to pull upon subconscious levels for the inspiration and
drive necessary to creative work. Unique individuality is the vehicle which the Secret Self uses for the
manifestation of talent, and is lar gely being stultified by our modern
industrial society . Our education teaches conformity . The industrial machine
needs workers, and workers must be predictable, and predictability , as far as
society is concerned, is best obtained by inculcating the same social
conscience in each person. Consequently , most people live a routine that is
not of their own choosing but has been selected for them by society . Their
opinions also have been given to them by the group, and they accept them
as part of the condition of their lives. All thinking is done for them. They
believe in the political institution that they belong to, the labor union that
they belong to, the state, city , and community that they belong to. They are
unable to make an objective decision about anything they encounter but
react to everything as it af fects their preformed opinions. This egoistic basis
for judging things is completely false and completely static because it does
not allow the individual to grow . Truth in some final analysis may be
absolute, but for the individual it is an individual matter . What is good for
one is not necessarily good for all, but neither is the good of all necessarily
best for the individual. As long as humans continue to live in groups, social conscience will
continue to have a distinct and necessary function, but such social
conscience must make provision for individual growth and responsibility ,
for it now tends to defeat itself by making automatons of its adherents. Large industrial firms are finding that the idea box in the plant pays
dividends. When workers are encouraged to think creatively about the
business in which they labor , their mental attitude toward that business is
changed. They not only become more ef ficient in their tasks, but sooner or
later contribute toward the growth of the business. No one is built to put
nuts on bolts all day . That is the task of a machine. But a person may endure
such a job if allowed to pursue means by which it may be done more
efficiently . Naturally the worker will not be disposed to such activity if they
feel that it may result in their being without a job at all, but only if they feel
that they will be rewarded with a better job or a better income.The basic problems in industrial advancement are delineated by the
opposing forces of labor and management. Or ganized labor has grown as a
protection to the worker from exploitation, but its psychological position
has become static. It is lar gely opposed to advances in technology that may
do away with job categories, and “featherbedding” in all industries has
achieved such proportion as to be a distinct burden on ef ficient operation. The solution to ef fective industrial growth is not likely to be found in
organized labor , but rather in an enlightened management which makes its
labor force part of its creative ef fort, rewards each worker on an individual
basis, and allows participation of every member of the or ganization in the
fruits of that or ganization. When such industrial enlightenment finally is
achieved, there will be a unification of labor and management because their
aims will be the same, and each person will have a creative responsibility
toward their work. Productivity
 
Creative talent demands production. The displacement of ego in favor of
the guidance of the Secret Self results in our being driven to accomplish
tasks that heretofore we would have considered impossible. No mountain is
too high, no wilderness too broad, and the creative soul attuned to the
Divine labors and produces unremittingly . Thomas Carlyle wrote, “Even in
the meanest sorts of labor the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind
of real harmony the instant he sets himself to work. Produce! W ere it but
the pitifullest, infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it in God’ s
name.”
For the most part we are too inhibited and repressed to be able to express
the personality that is uniquely our own. The ego-controlled nature acts
always in accord with an idea of how people expect it to act. Since it does
not know itself, it does not know how it truly feels, but adopts feelings from
desire-goals rather than from the individuality innate to it. People who
endure all to make money are a classic example of repression andinhibition. They swindle their inferiors and fawn on their superiors, and by
this consequent warping of moral values so completely repress the Secret
Self that it is impossible for them to be creative or spontaneous in any area
of their activity . Making money is not an end in life. Pursuing the god
Mammon has only fatal results. But achievement is one of life’ s primary
aims, and achievement often results in monetary success. T o be what we
naturally are and to live and act as we naturally were created should be the
primary aim of each of us. W e have been put here on earth by a power
greater than we are; we have been manifested in our particular form so as to
reflect in humanity an image of the Divine. W e cannot reflect this image or
do the work natural to us if we become repressed by centering our
consciousness in our egoistic natures. Spontaneity is the secr et of doing things well. W e act in accor d with our
whole natur e when we do things feelingly instead of thinkingly . Reason is
valuable too, but it serves a limited world and a limited knowledge. When
we act only accor ding to r eason, we act with the bar est facts in our
possession. But when we act instinctively and intuitively , we act as an
instrument of the Secr et Self, and behind our action lie all knowledge, all
intelligence, all power . When you ar e spontaneous in your actions and in
your thoughts, you ar e being yourself, and when you ar e being yourself, you
are a hundr ed times mor e effective, mor e joyful, mor e creative than you ar e
when you ar e ordering your life in accor dance with the aims of the surface
mind. The consciously contr olled and intentioned person is suppr essing
their talent, for they ar e suppr essing the action of the Divine within them. No talent ever is exhibited by the conscious mind or ego, and someone
whose life is or dered by them never can be cr eative. Get into the Game
 
Let yourself go. Shake of f inhibition and fear , and be yourself. Learn to
think and act naturally , spontaneously; harmony and symmetry will enter
your life, and you will discover your inherent talent. Most people never findtheir proper niches simply because they inhibit the talent they possess. It
takes courage to go out on a limb and do the things that are natural. It is
much easier to sit on the sidelines, watch somebody else perform, and
criticize. Monday morning quarterbacks are notorious in football, and in the
world of art it has long been axiomatic that the critic is a frustrated artist. The American writer Fulton Oursler reported:
 
One winter ’s night, many years ago, when I was no mor e than twenty , I was
belaboring a typewriter in the newsr oom of the Baltimor e American. A copy
boy summoned me to the office of the managing editor , a bald-headed old
walrus with white mustaches like hanging gar dens and a perverse sense of
humor . Leaning back in his swivel chair he asked me:
“Do you play the piano?”
“No, sir .”
“Fiddle?”
“No, sir .”
“Sing?”
“No, sir .”
“Then go up to the L yric and cover the concert. Our music critic just
dropped dead. Y ou’ve got the job.”
 
If hindsight were foresight, we’d all be kings. It takes little imagination and
absolutely no enterprise to recognize the errors of people who have the
courage to try when the outcome is in doubt. Creative talent carries with it
an element of deepest personal risk. Before we can become a fit vehicle, we
must figuratively hang ourselves from a clif f by our fingertips, suspend
ourselves between life and death. In this psychological position ofawareness of the basic elements of life, we no longer are confused about the
purposes of the Secret Self and are able to pierce quickly the sham and
subterfuge of egoistic action and thought and act always as an instrument of
the Divine. A deep indif ference to the opinions of others existing side by
side with recognition of a common spiritual bond brings to us our true and
unique personality , allowing our whole lives to be an expression of that
particular facet of the Supreme that is best able to manifest through us. Thus we discover our talent. It may be in the arts, the sciences, business,
war, or politics; but wherever we find our niche, we will fit into it as a hand
in a skintight glove, as if we and it were made for each other , and we will
perform our work in such a manner as to be completely indistinguishable
from it. Tempering by Fir e
 
All creative people must under go a tempering process during which they
are subjected to fire and after which their toughness is increased. Life is not
such a gentle thing as to be approached with dainty fingers. Look about and
you will see that nature chooses her blessed ones by subjecting them to the
most severe tests. Out of the crucible of conflict emer ge the lionhearted, and
they are the ones who carry the banner of evolution onward. Those who
subject themselves to the sternest of trials are in the end the best
instruments for ef fectuation of the purposes of the Secret Self. It is they
through whom mighty works are done, upon whom great events hinge. The
exercised muscle grows stronger , the exercised mind grows smarter; the
exercised heart grows bolder; but nothing destroys as quickly as disuse. Repression and inhibition do more toward girdling us around with
limitation than any obstacles we face. If a thing were as easy to do as to say all of us would be saints. Exorcising
fear, anxiety , and hostility from the consciousness is not a simple matter and
is nearly impossible as long as the ego rules the nature. In order for the
individual life to be natural, it is necessary that it be lived as an extension ofthe Divine. Reason must be subordinated as primary principle. Emotion
must be subordinated as guiding force. Action and thought must develop
spontaneously and ef fortlessly , as a result of the consciousness being placed
in the position of observation rather than origination. The development of talent depends upon spiritual awakening. Unawakened
people are born with talent, but if they remain unawakened during their
lifetime, they are eaten up by the force that possesses them because they are
unable to express it and the opposing sides of their nature are constantly at
war with each other . Do What Y ou Ar e
 
Dale belonged to the United States Marine Corps during W orld W ar II and
fought through five campaigns with extreme bravery . Prior to his enlistment
he had gone to art school, and his early works in oil showed much promise. The danger and disaster he faced in the marines, however , altered his
attitude, and once he was dischar ged he made up his mind that he wanted
material possessions. He set about acquiring them, took a job in an
advertising agency as a layout man, gradually advanced to art director ,
received a salary that enabled him to live in comfort. He was far from
happy , however . Easel and paints were for gotten, and nightly journeys to
cocktail bars took on such dimension that he seldom went to bed without
being drunk. Before long, he was drinking during the day also, and it
became obvious to his intimates that he was harboring a deep core of
resentment. When this resentment finally manifested in an arthritic attack, Dale was
sent to bed by his doctor , and there had time to think. One day an old friend
from his art school days, now pursuing a career as a painter , came to him
and they talked. His friend looked at the sumptuous apartment. “You must be making it pretty good,” he said.“Sure thing,” answered Dale. “T wenty thousand a year and all the
trimmings. Practically anything I want. How about you?”
His friend smiled. “I’m lucky if I do three thousand a year , and you could
put my little studio in one corner of this apartment.”
“Then why not give it up?” asked Dale. “Come into the ad agency . I’ll start
you at ten thousand.”
Dale’ s friend shook his head. “No, thanks,” he said. “I’m happy the way I
am.”
“You are?” asked Dale. “Yes.”
“Really happy , eh?”
“You bet. Aren’ t you?”
“I couldn’ t be more miserable.”
“Then it strikes me that you’re the one who ought to change. There isn’ t
enough money in the world to lock me into an unhappy job. Y ou’re not
painting, are you? I don’ t see an easel or a canvas in the whole apartment.”
“I’ve given it up,” answered Dale. “So you’ve given it up and you’re flat on your back and you’ve got lots of
money and you’re unhappy . I’ll tell you something. There’ s a studio right
next to mine, and the rent is thirty dollars a month. Y ou give up your job
and move in there and begin to paint again. Unless I miss my guess that’ s
the cure for what ails you.”
After his friend left, Dale thought it over . That evening he obtained brushes
and oils and started to paint. By the end of a week he was deeply engrossed,
and his arthritic pains had gone. He moved out of his apartment and into the
studio and has been painting ever since. He smiles cheerfully now in his
paint-stained smock.“I made twenty-five hundred dollars last year ,” he says, “which is big
money for a painter , but it barely kept the wolf away from the door . Still, I
couldn’ t care less about that wolf. All I want to do is paint. When I paint, I
am completely happy , because I’m doing something that is part of me.”
 
Creativeness and Competitiveness
 
Somerset Maugham wrote, “The artist can, within certain limits, make what
he likes of his life. In other callings, in medicine, for instance, or the law ,
you are free to choose whether you will adopt them or not, but having
chosen you are free no longer . You are bound by the rules of your
profession; a standard of conduct is imposed upon you. The pattern is
predetermined. It is only the artist who can make his own.”
When you turn your life over to the Secret Self the channel in you best
adapted for expression of the Divine is cleared and developed, and a unique
talent is exposed. A direction of growth is opened, within which you are
perfectly free. It has little to do with your position in society or your
membership in social groups. Y our mind and talent develop independently
of material associations because you have turned them over to the Secret
Self to use as they are best fitted. Each of us most satisfies himself as a
person and fulfills himself as a member of society when he lives the life of
an artist, not necessarily that of a painter or writer but an artist in the sense
that his attitude toward all things is creative rather than competitive. The world of competition is the world of egoistic desire, for competition
seeks ascendancy over others. People whose ruling passion is to prove
themselves better usually look upon the world with hostile eyes and regard
everyone else as an enemy . Such limited perception of the nature and
purpose of life clearly destroys more often than it blesses, for victory
always is temporary , and defeat awaits all whose lives revolve around
superiority . The ego is born, blooms, withers, and dies, just as the material
body , and the individual whose aspirations center around it must follow acycle that leads to eventual defeat and disintegration. Oh, the noonday of
the ego is fine. Someone in possession of their full powers may stand upon
their individual mountain and beat their chest and defy the world, but noon
quickly passes and the day of their life wanes, and noontime becomes a
very dim memory as the shadows lengthen. In order to participate freely and fully in all things, we must adopt the wider
vision that perceives the majestic onward march of evolution as basic in our
attitude toward life. W e may appear to be competitive through participating
in competitive things, but we do not compete through egoistic desire to be
better or superior , only as a result of having opened ourselves as a vehicle
for the manifestation of the Secret Self. W e are used in all things and are
never the user , and because we see our basic unity with all people, we are
able to enter competition without hostility , neither for gain nor loss. W e are
able to regard with equal-mindedness those we vanquish and those who
vanquish us, for each represents to us the same immutable person whose
manifestation we know we are ourselves. Surr ender Brings Contr ol
 
The truly creative attitude is a passive one insofar as it listens and does not
command. Y et what is wrought through the individual whose ear is attuned
to the Divine is char ged with the most vital ener gy imaginable, far
surpassing anything possible to egoistic willpower . It is ego-will that
eventually breaks a person through constantly throwing them against
obstacles that are immovable because they are not understood. W illpower
seeks to batter down doors that are best approached with a key . Enlightened
people are talented people because they are creative people, and this
creativity is instilled in them by a sense of unity with all things. Obstacles
and opposition and enemies have meaning for them only as they indicate a
lack of understanding within themselves, and they never seek
accomplishment by running headlong at things, but only by attempting to
mentally and spiritually penetrate their true meaning. My teacher is the conqueror knowing all
And seeing all, the Master Infinite
In pity , all the world’ s physician, he
And he it is by whom these truths are taught. — THERAGA THA
 
Has the ship of your life come to disaster through running aground on
uncharted shoals? If so, the greatest lesson you can learn is now possible,
for your ship never would have grounded if the proper navigator were
charting the course. Y our surface self and egoistic nature have been at the
helm, and the limited perception of surface mind could not possibly know
of the uncharted shoals. Now your ship is aground, and the only way that it
can be freed is to give over command to the master who knows these waters
well. Surrender is the principle by which ultimate control is gained. The
bossy surface self continually tries to run the show and its enamoring cry of
“I, I, I” may easily delude the whole consciousness into limited life and
knowledge, but when a person runs into suf ficient pain and dif ficulty , a
crack appears in the hard veneer of the ego and a light is let through which
illuminates all for one startled instant of awareness. Then the person knows
that their life and self are in the hands of something greater than they are,
that their identity with the surface mind has always been an illusion, which
in this moment of enlightenment they are freed from. Creative people af fect us as being rich in possibilities. They are ripened
trees that drop their fruit, and we scarcely can be near them without
attaining to some unexpected good. Creative people’ s attitudes have an
aspect of abundance, as if they have some mystical tie with a horn of plenty ,
not of material things necessarily , but of ideas and of possibilities that give
a universal note to everything they do. A good thing is ef fective and
generative. It grows and propagates and makes room for itself. It springsinto being through an irresistible creative ur ge of universal mind, and the
vehicle of its manifestation always is the person with an artistic attitude
toward life. Ralph W aldo Emerson wrote, “The true artist has the planet for
his pedestal.” They see the possibilities inherent in all things and are
discoverers in the universe and interpreters for their less enlightened
fellows. Freeing Y our T alent
 
Each person is by some secret liking connected to a particular aspect of life. When we have become freed of the repressions, limitations, and inhibitions
imposed upon us by our education and training, we are able to expose this
subconscious preference and by it attune ourselves with the creative talent
that naturally is ours. Such talent has limitless possibilities for
manifestation. It need have no connection with the so-called arts and may
be as simple a thing as a talent for kindness or love. It may be a talent for
speaking, for persuasion, for teaching, for research, for study . It may be in
science or business, but wherever it is it will prove on exposure to be vastly
superior to the abilities of people who are guided solely by competitive
aims and egoistic desires. It will proceed out of an inexhaustible fount, be
superior to us as people, seem to use us rather than we use it. Our ordinary
mortal selves will live with our talent in a constant state of startled delight. We will know it is a visitation of something above and beyond us, will treat
it at all times with loving care, follow it, obey it, never command it. The most completely frustrating thing that can happen to the individual life
is for inherent talent to fail to develop. Such failure only can come about
through the ego controlling the nature, restricting the individual’ s growth in
the direction intended. The torrent of creative ener gy that exists in every human being becomes
dammed up only with the gravest danger . Resentment, bitterness, hate, and
hostility are the emotional maladjustments that result from a frustratedcreative nature, and these inevitably find their counterparts in physical
illness. Heart trouble, circulatory disease, arthritis, rheumatism, cancer ,
ulcer are all psychosomatic symptoms resulting from dammed-up creative
energy. It not only is imperative that we free our talent in order to become
fulfilled as individuals, but it also is important that we free it in order to live
physically vigorous lives, in order to have healthy bodies. These ends can
be accomplished only by lowering our egoistic barriers, by turning our lives
over to the Divine to be used for whatever purpose our basic natures are
best suited. When we are able to do this, we become natural persons,
blending into our tasks and our work in such a manner that we seem an
extension of our activities and they an extension of us. W e achieve an
effectiveness in action that is directly proportional to the degree that we
have turned our lives over to the Secret Self, and the manifestation that
comes through us of superior action and skill is not possessed by the surface
self but uses it as an instrument to ef fect its purposes in the world. Your Separate Star
 
True artists we all are inherently , for each of us reflects an image in the
growing body of humankind of the one mind and intelligence that lies
behind creation. W e paint a picture as we go through life of that mystic and
occult realm whence we originated and to which we one day will return. When we depart, the picture remains, with our signature in the corner , and
is just as surely the representation of what we saw and felt and heard and
attempted to communicate as is the picture of the painter , signed and hung
upon the wall of the gallery . And in the final analysis who is to judge which
vision is the most beautiful or worthwhile, for if someone lives the life of an
artist, their hand is guided by a will other than their own, and what is
wrought through them is wrought at the behest of the Divine, whose deft
brushstrokes are gradually adding to the picture of eternity and infinity . Throw of f the egoistic bonds that hold you and allow the Secret Self to
shine through. Y ou will become the artist incarnate. A talent will begin todevelop in you toward which your whole nature can be lent. Y ou will begin
to do the work that only you can do, that will fulfill you as a human being
and as an aspiring soul. Wherever your heart leads, you may joyfully
follow , with an inner certainty that you are acting in accord with the deepest
motivations of life. Each for the joy of working
And each, in his separate star ,
Shall draw the thing as he sees it
For the God of things as they are. — RUDY ARD KIPLINGOceanofPDF .com 
11
 
How to Use Y our Sixth Sense
 
Today the existence of a sixth sense is well r ecognized. Supersensory
ability has been r ecorded thr ough the centuries but only r ecently under
laboratory conditions; now its existence is finally and irr evocably
proved. Under sixth sense may be lumped all paranormal phenomena
such as thought transfer ence, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis, which in
parapsychology ar e called ESP , extrasensory per ception. Intuitive
understanding of cir cumstances comes thr ough the use of the sixth
sense, and its range and scope ar e vastly gr eater than those of the other
five. The Dimly Seen W orld
 
The physical sensory or gans reveal to us the barest indication of what
actually is encountered in the material world. They record vibrations. Each
sense records a tiny segment of the total spectrum of vibrations. The
recording of all five senses is only an infinitesimal part of that total
spectrum. A million times more remains untold about each object we
encounter than is ever revealed to us by our physical senses. W e move
about in a world that we obtain only the dimmest impression of. Objects
that we regard as solid are not solid at all, but are merely enclosures of
higher vibrations, and everything exists in a constant state of movement andflux. Form is merely the imprisonment of movement within dimension, and
in the final analysis all things are far more mental than physical. Now that physical science has been able to reduce the smallest bit of matter
to nothingness, has found basic substance to be ener gy or intelligence, even
the most materialistic of researchers has been forced to the inevitable
conclusion that all things are basically ideas, that they are held in form as
concepts in some universal intelligence. It is through this universal
intelligence that we discover the sixth sense, that we arrive at spiritual
enlightenment. It is the immersion of ego in this intelligence that provides
salvation for the individual, allowing them to live their life in a state of
attunement and harmony . The psychological act of shucking of f the little
self and attaining to a lar ger self is what the great mystics speak of when
they record their arrival at the “moment of truth.”
There is a vast and great mind that is responsible for the construction of the
universe, that is in a very real sense the universe itself, and this infinite and
eternal intelligence creates only from its own substance, and everything it
creates is inherently itself, not something dif ferent, except through the
limitation imposed upon it by its becoming partial and incomplete. Everything in creation is a manifestation of the one mind and intelligence
that underlies all. Each person therefore has within them a supermind which
is free of limitation and restriction, and this mind, working beneath the level
of conscious intelligence, is capable of absolute and truthful guidance in all
things because it understands and perceives all things. Moments of Illumination
 
Universal mind is a manifestation of the Secret Self, of that divine will that
inexorably leads humankind upon the path of evolution. The surface mind
and ego are products of the five senses, of that knowledge that we acquire
during the period of our lifetime, and since they are the results of limited
knowledge and partial experience, they are the poorest vehicles for theconduct of action. Absolute ef fectiveness comes to those who immerse ego
in universal mind and allow the Secret Self to guide them. Their
psychological position is that of a listener; their inner mind and heart
become attuned to a wider consciousness, a greater sense of being;
impressions, knowledge, and intuitive ur gings come to them from out of
this source with an authority greater than anything received through their
sensory or gans. “Ever and anon the trumpet sounds from the hid battlements of eternity ,”
wrote the English poet and mystic Francis Thompson. And to each of us as
we go through life, a moment comes, however fleeting, when a crack
appears in the hard wall of consciousness, and we see through briefly , into
regions of eternal light and infinite knowledge, and in that moment we truly
are possessed of a sixth sense; something paranormal happens, some
example of intuitive knowledge; we read the thoughts of others or see at a
distance or understand coming events. Such an experience leaves us shaken. Our absorption in the material world is for gotten for the moment. W e begin
to see the astounding possibilities of mind and consciousness. W e become
convinced that when we deal with material things we deal with results, not
causes; we know that all causes exist in mind. W e begin to perceive infinite
possibilities, vast scopes, subtle nuances that have been hidden from us by
our limited consciousness. Such understanding may come to us from a
small event or lar ge. It may result from such a simple thing as the sudden
apprehension of the thoughts of another person. A light may burst upon us,
and we may have sudden knowledge of a coming event. Perhaps one of our
dreams comes true, or a loved one materializes and instructs us as to a
course of action. In any case, intuitive phenomena come to all people. The
dice player ur ging the goddess of fate to smile on their next cast does not
always beseech Lady Luck in vain. Sometimes they open up a channel
between themself and omnipotent intelligence, and the dice repeat magic
numbers at such length as to reduce mathematical odds to absurdity . Intuition and Reason
 Intuition is much more reliable than reason, for reason charts its course with
limited access to facts, while intuition has at its fingertips all the knowledge
that has ever existed, that ever will exist. Using the sixth sense, however , is
not such a simple matter as trusting one’ s life to one’ s feelings. It is very
easy to fall into the trap of being guided by the emotions, under the
misapprehension that emotions are intuitive feelings. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. Emotion is a wild horse, running away with the
inhabitant in the body , and those who are ruled by emotion are in the grip of
something worse than limited knowledge; they are the blind tool of egoistic
fears, hates, envies. Such a life is an idiot’ s tale, without design. Reason can
control the emotions, and reason is a far better guide. Reason is limited in
both ef fectiveness and knowledge, however , and when it has achieved
sufficient supremacy over the emotional nature, it may safely be
subordinated to the guidance of intuition; thus the whole life is brought to a
level of competence and attunement. Charles Steinmetz, the celebrated engineer of the General Electric
Company , wrote, “Some day people will learn that material things will not
bring happiness and are of little use in making men and women creative and
powerful. Then the scientists of the world will turn their laboratories to the
study of God and prayer and the spiritual forces which as yet have hardly
been scratched. When this day comes, the world will see more advancement
in one generation than it has seen in the past four .”
Reason enables us to deal ef fectively with our immediate surroundings, but
only within the scope of the information available to the five senses. Reason
tells us we may go coatless on a sunny day , but the storm that is gathering
over the horizon is outside the scope of reason, and when it rains in the late
afternoon, reason has been wrong. The wider consciousness in the depths of
each of us must be trusted before our actions can be guided with a
knowledge of all factors. Reason is a tool, and logic is an ef fective method
of thinking, but each is only a means and no more reliable than the
information fed into it. In the eyes of the world intuitive people often act
unreasonably , for their actions are based upon a secret knowledge that is
hidden from more logical minds. Reasonable people have dif ficulty
discerning between the emotionally guided person and the intuitively
guided person. T o them, they are both unreasonable. They see that theemotionally guided person is almost never right, and they correctly attribute
this fact to such a person’ s psychic blind spots. They see the intuitively
guided person act unreasonably but with continued success, and they
attribute this to luck rather than to any ef fective means of coping with the
world. In consequence, the reasonable person is almost as blinded as the
emotional person, for the reasonable person has shut their eyes to the
possibilities of intuitive knowing. Logic and Science
 
The scientific approach to the solution of problems works from ef fect to
cause. Knowledge of a particular problem is contained in those facts
observable in the ef fect under scrutiny . This ef fect is the field of ef fort, and
logic is the method by which science works from the ef fect to the cause
which produced it. This procedure has made remarkable advances, but for
the most part they have been within the realm of known facts. Now and
again a creative thinker joins the laboratory armies and in one intuitive flash
spans years of painstaking experiment. Albert Einstein stated that his theory
of relativity was revealed to him in a moment of inspiration, and the
simplicity of the eventual mathematical formula, E = MC², could not have
been hidden from an army of researchers unless its significance was outside
the scope of their consciousness. All science and mathematics are in the end
philosophical, for they attempt to penetrate the mysteries of the universe
and the secret of life, and they represent the ef forts of humankind on the
boundaries of awareness to extend that awareness unceasingly . To recognize that there is a mind within us that knows the answers to all our
problems is the first step to acquiring the use of the infallible sixth sense. It
is not necessary to find a solution in the material world. In point of actual
fact the solution can never be found there. The secret lies within ourselves,
and we need go no farther than our very room to find each answer . There is
tremendous comfort in discovering within oneself an infinite and eternal
mind that holds the answer to each problem, to realize that the solution toeach perplexing situation may be found simply by searching one’ s soul. But
we are suf ficiently out of joint with life, we may find it extremely dif ficult
to commune with our inner and deeper nature, and may even become
neurotic through having severed psychic ties with our originator . When we
look into the reaches of our soul, those trackless corridors stretch toward
infinity and appall us with their emptiness; we are frightened and seek
quickly to return to the uneasy security of our material existence. It takes
courage to look upon the many faces of the Secret Self. The Divine does not
reside alone in beauty , comfort, love, and harmony , but is equally resident
in ugliness, hardship, hate, and discord. The Secret Self attains its purpose
in all areas of endeavor by the conflict of opposites, and before we are able
to live as mature human beings, we must accept all sides of life as being
part of an absolutely sure and perfect plan for the working out of the
purposes of the Divine. God Sense
 
The sixth sense is a God sense, an identification, however momentary , with
the Secret Self, which enables us, in that instant, to perceive future, past,
and present in one instantaneous tableau, to contain all space and time
within the confines of our own consciousness. Such awareness, if
constantly possessed, would make all our actions infallible, and the purpose
of evolution must lie in just such an end as this; the beginnings of such a
development are already perceivable in the lives of many people. The Ouija
board, the divining rod, the crystal ball, and the star gazer have been with us
since the dawn of recorded history . Such phenomena definitely are
indicative of humanity’ s recognition of a power of intuition — a sixth
sense. This paranormal facility of the mind has been lar gely ignored in the
past century of material conquest, but now that the searchlight of scientific
examination is being brought to bear , it appears inevitable that mental and
spiritual advances will overshadow material advances in the years ahead.A new approach, a new concept is necessary before investigation of the
paranormal will yield results. The methods of science have not
demonstrated that they are adaptable to the study of a world that is
invisible. By means of the microscope and the telescope, science has
extended its vision enormously , but in the realm of the microcosm it
disintegrated the atom and found nothing left, and in the world of the
macrocosm it detected distant galaxies moving away at the speed of light
into space that shouldn’ t exist. Ultimately , all investigations of matter have
a common meeting ground, which is the disappearance of individuality into
unity , into a world where space and time and separateness do not exist, and
this world is not capable of representation by objects or material things but
is primarily mental and not subject to the probing of physical instruments. Investigations in the field of parapsychology have now pr oved that it is
possible for one mind to communicate with another without any known
organic means, and this has been labeled telepathy . It has also been pr oved
that the human mind can attain to knowledge of coming events, and this has
been labeled pr ecognition. It has been pr oved that the human mind can see
at a distance, and this has been labeled clairvoyance. It has been pr oved
that the human mind can influence the behavior of objects, and this has
been labeled psychokinesis. All these powers of the mind, however dimly
discerned or bar ely understood, when lumped together indicate the
existence of an absolutely unexplor ed ar ea of vast and almost unimaginable
possibilities that one day must liberate humanity fr om its bondage to the
flesh. Mor eover , ther e is indicated a coming r evolution in the basic concepts
of life.
_OceanofPDF.com_The_Magic_in_Your_Mind_-_Eckhart_TolleForeword_U_S_Andersen.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Y ou may have wadded up other pieces of paper and tossed
them at the wastebasket without a single further hit, and probably you
shrugged your shoulders and wrote of f the first hit to luck. W ell, it wasn’ t
luck at all. It was simply that you performed the action without the
interference of conscious mind. In ef fect, you allowed the paper to propel
itself at the wastebasket, with yourself as only a medium of impulsion. This
kind of psychic unification of the basket and the paper and the propelling
energy allowed all elements in the action to become “one piece,” and
anything occurring within that unity had to have perfect symmetry and be
absolutely ef fective. Becoming One with Our T asks
 
Now if there is one mind common to all things and exclusive to none, it
follows that we basically are all part of a single or ganism, and our
effectiveness within that or ganism depends upon our recognition of this
fact. As long as we view ourselves as separate selves, we are moved by the
delusion of egoistic desire and thus led into opposition to the will of the
Secret Self. Any action that is conceived in the ego and entered into for
egoistic purposes, if not doomed to failure from the outset, can result in
only mediocre success. Its entire purpose and impulsion arise from a limited
knowledge, set against the ocean of knowledge that is universal mind. W e
learn to do things well by becoming one with them, by so engrossing
ourselves in our tasks that we pick up a sense of unity with them. This sense
of oneness is impossible to the egoistic nature for the simple reason that the
ego itself is a sense of separateness. When we become completely absorbed
in things, we have a true spiritual experience, for by this psychological
transference of self, we plunge deeply into universal mind and become the
work that we are doing. Everyone who has great skill or talent goes daily to
this fount of for getfulness, plunges in and is renewed, and the temple of
their religious worship is their own talent. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If
one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to
live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with unexpected success
in common hours. ”
 
Thrusting against Pain
 
All barriers to accomplishment are in the mind. Education itself teaches
limitation, and history establishes a definitive level that suppresses human
aspiration. For years four minutes was thought to be the fastest time that
anyone ever would run the mile, then along came a group of Australianmilers with a new philosophy. They broke down the mental barriers, and
now any number of people have run the mile faster than four minutes. This new philosophy might as easily be applied to any area of human
activity. It is built around the premise of thrusting against pain, on the idea
that pain represents a limitation in the mind. Those who train under this
system drive themselves to run farther than they think they can, asserting
the principle of mind over matter to do away with fatigue. Such a
philosophy releases a human being from all barriers. Nothing is impossible
to us as long as our guiding principle is to surmount each obstacle we
encounter. Directional drive is the most important single factor in achievement. Outstanding boxers are often culled from the social groups that have to
fight hardest to survive. Heads of corporations and government executives
are often born in the most humble circumstances, and their climb to the top
is allied directly to their dedication. Heaven attends those who throw their
hearts into their work. In this absorption they lose their egoistic sense of
self and become clear channels for the ener gy and creativeness of universal
mind. Constant Aspiration
 
The usefulness of goals depends on their ability to remove limitation from
our thinking. W e can exceed ourselves by aiming higher than we have ever
aimed before. It is not the goal that is important; it is the aiming higher. When a goal is reached, it actually becomes a limitation unless replaced by
a higher goal. Those who achieve something and spend any time patting
themselves on the back are nullifying their growth, for when self-
complacency enters the nature, ego grows and the individual stagnates. If
we don’ t try to exceed ourselves, we disintegrate. If we do not try to be
better, it is impossible for us even to stay as good as we are. The dynamicforces of life are growth and decay, and nothing is static; things move in
one direction or the other. A few years ago, a young man emer ged from an automobile accident
paralyzed from the neck down, except for the rudimentary use of the
forefinger of his right hand. As he lay abed and pondered his situation he
resolved to develop some skill with that right forefinger. He had a
typewriter rigged on his bed, with his right arm slung before it so he could
peck at the keys with his forefinger. His initial ef forts were excruciatingly
slow and required great concentration and resolve. He labored for hours to
type a single sentence. As the weeks turned into months he was able to type
a page, then two, finally a dozen or more. After a year he not only was
typing proficiently but was actually sitting up in bed to do it. T oday, he gets
about with crutches and has embarked upon a program of total
rehabilitation. He seems well on the road to recovery. Such tenacity and
purpose might be expected to belong to a very grim person, but this young
man has deep humility and a wry sense of humor. When asked how he has
been able to accomplish such miraculous results, he stated, “I was given
this body, and I banged it up. The least I can do is put it back in the
condition I found it. ”
Humans have searched out the trackless wastes of the poles, journeyed to
the depths of the seas, flung themselves miles into the air, and even
journeyed amongst the stars. Who can say that anything is impossible to the
human mind and ef fort. There exists within us a power to imagine a better
world than the one in which we live, and we never cease attempting to find
it. Our imagination should be treated with precious care, for it is the tool of
our liberation from the bonds that hold us. W e can be anything we are
capable of visualizing, do anything we are able to imagine, for the images
that form in our minds inevitably lead us into the work that ef fects their
realization. Inner Acceptance
 Skills ar e developed by faith that one possesses the skill alr eady. This a
priori inner attainment of the skill allows us to act as if it wer e impossible
for us to fail. W e still will go thr ough a period of ineptness, but such
ineptness will not stay with us. W e will surmount all — all fear, all
ineffectuality — for we ar e sustained in all cir cumstances by an inner vision
that we alr eady have accepted as r eality. If we aspir e to an ability, we
become accomplished only after inner acceptance. No one can ever be any
better or gr eater than their mental visualization. If we accept ourselves as
exactly what we alr eady ar e, it becomes impossible for us to impr ove. T o
become better we must think we ar e better, not in the egoistic sense of
thinking that something is our due, but in the wider spiritual sense of
realizing that all things derive fr om the image within. Such psychic
positioning of the ego r eleases it fr om bondage to itself and allows it to
accept on faith the fact of its wider being and effectiveness. Skillfulness is primarily a matter of becoming an instrument for the action
of a greater mind and will. Any egocentric ef fort to dominate the world or
to originate action from the standpoint of the surface mind immediately
raises the problem of the ego controlling itself. Any system of self-control,
inasmuch as it approaches perfect self-control, also approaches perfect self-
frustration, for control implies keeping something from doing what it
normally is disposed to do. The idea of acting in accord with our nature
meets with objections on every hand. T aking the restraints of f human nature
supposedly would be like letting loose a swarm of locusts. Religious and
social groups have adopted the idea that humanity is more a work of the
devil than of God, that our bestial nature must be held in restraint by laws
and inhibitions. Thus duality is forced upon us, the necessity of presenting
one face to the world while living in solitude with another, and it is
responsible for more mental and physical ailments than all the microbes
ever discovered. Be Y ourself
 We present one face to the world and behold another in the privacy of our
rooms, and this knowledge that we are not what the world expects us to be
manifests in a kind of social conscience that makes cowards of us all. Most
of us are afraid to be ourselves. Like chameleons we change colors to suit
our backgrounds. Our opinions are formed by what people expect us to
think; our behavior patterns are based upon how people expect us to
behave; and since we are always thinking in response to outside
circumstances, we scarcely know how we feel at all and never have any
sense of self other than the one reflected in the eyes of others. “To thine own self be true,” wrote Shakespeare, “and it shall follow as the
night the day, thou can’ st not then be false to any man. ” It is important to
act in accord with your own nature. When you live sincerely and feelingly,
you become a pure channel for the expression of the Divine. Each of us is
accorded a unique individuality. As long as that individuality is unhampered
by inhibition and fear, it is capable of expressing something dif ferent and
vital, but when it is restricted and limited by apprehension, it cannot express
itself at all. The dammed-up torrent of universal ener gy then turns upon
itself, and the dual sides of the ego-nature, like the gingham dog and the
calico cat, “eat each other up. ”
Countless people are restrained from learning because they are afraid to try. In them is a false pride that is connected directly to the ego, and it will not
let them perform awkwardly because it has no humility, and it will not let
them begin anything and be novices because it cannot stand any idea of
itself that is not better than others. If we can be rid of ego-self and have
accepted that we are only an instrument of divine will and action, we are
able to embark upon the learning of a skill with the utmost humility and
deep indif ference to the opinions of others. W e can be laughed at without
shame; we can be jeered at without ridicule; we can laugh at ourselves; we
can ridicule ourselves; but all the while our vision burns brightly, and we
know that one day we will have the attainment of the skill. W e have no fear,
for fear is possible only to the ego, and the ego has been subordinated in our
nature. W e embark upon all enterprises with courage, persistence, and faith. Just because we toil endlessly at the door of creation, that door eventually
yields, and marvelous works are wrought through us because our hand is
moved by the Divine. Whatever your aspiration, remember this: the masterof that skill is within you. Those who already possess it are greatest of all. Give over the doing of your work to that master and get yourself out of the
way, and you will find that you are soon performing with consummate
knowledge and skill. OceanofPDF. com 
10
 
Creating Y our Own T alent
 
Creativeness contains a secr et. Cr eative people exhibit a deep psychic
tie with the inscrutable mystery of life. They perform in their work
with the same naturalness as the flower gr ows fr om the soil, for they
have attained to a unity in mental and spiritual r elationships that make
them seem part of the things they ar e doing. The consummate artist
becomes one with their task, so allied with it in movement and being
that it becomes almost impossible to discern wher e the person ends and
the work begins. Carl Jung stated that it was not Goethe who cr eated
Faust as much as it was Faust that cr eated Goethe. One seems
absolutely dependent upon the other since each r epresents the same
thing. Faust is an extension of Goethe, just as Goethe is an extension of
Faust. The Artist Incarnate
 
Talent is an absolute blending of the individual with their work. Paintings of
the great painter become the painter, just as the painter becomes the great
paintings. When we see a person who exhibits a great talent, we know at
once a kind of ecstasy at this manifestation of a supreme mind and skill. All
exhibition of talent is a kind of religious experience to those who behold it,
for it establishes a communion between the Secret Self and the individual. There is a living superforce whose sphere of action is lar gely invisible andoutside the boundaries of our workaday world. There is something more
purposeful than atoms. There is a higher evolved intelligence than any that
is contained within the human brain. There is a door into a world beyond,
which sometimes opens and allows the individual to be seized by strange
potencies tremendously above the level of their personal abilities. When
that happens we see the artist incarnate, the person with a supertalent, who
is able in one sphere of their activity to demonstrate directly to us the
incalculable power and wisdom and beauty of the Divine. The mystery of talented people is that they are rooted directly in universal
mind, that it manifests through them without any restriction or distortion by
the ego. It is not the person who is responsible for their work, but a power
beyond and above them that is manifesting through them, using them as an
instrument. In deepest essence each person is an artist and only comes to
their complete fulfillment as an individual when they get their egoistic
nature out of the way and allow the creative talent of the Divine to work
through them, to accomplish those tasks that can best be done through their
individually honed nature. When we live out our lives focused in the ego
and bound to egoistic desires and satisfactions, it becomes impossible for us
to achieve a spiritual awakening or to fulfill ourselves as creative persons. The world of material things is too much with us. Desires to be better, to
have more, to live in material comfort, blind us to the long reaches of
existence. This little life we live is important not for the creature comforts it
brings but for the search it involves us in. Until we make our primary
purpose the discovery of who we are and where we came from and what
our relationship to life is, we must live out our brief sputtering of the candle
in complete unawareness and blind automatism, following the pressures
that develop in the outer world as they impinge upon our senses. The Cr eative V ision
 
When our inner soul is touched by perception of the creative side of our
nature, we see at once the disaster inherent in a conduct of life based uponmaterial goals. W e see that this thing we have always thought ourselves to
be, our ego, is illusory, that the desires growing out of ego lead us into a
maze of intricate byroads that inevitably will lose our chance at
enlightenment. W e may give up all possessions, all fame, all creature
comforts, so as to be misled no longer, and take up our existence with a
resolve to be motivated in all things through an inner light that proceeds out
of universal mind. Such enforced asceticism allows us to engross ourselves
completely in the service of the Secret Self. John the Baptist prowling the
wilderness in search of his immortal soul is no more an example of it than is
the French painter Gauguin giving up career and family to exile himself on
a South Sea island to paint pictures. Each has been touched by the creative
vision; each must serve it at all costs. When our eyes have been opened to the creative nature of the Divine, we no
longer can help ourselves — we must serve it as an instrument, and nothing
stands in our way. The creative process is impersonal; it seizes the nature
and uses it to the utmost, and the person performs feats of creation far
above anything possible to their normal conscious mind. When this force
truly predominates in our makeup, it monopolizes our ener gy. In the
awakened artist, life is ruled by the subconscious. Conscious intention
means little, and the artist is swept along on subterranean currents in which
they are firmly enmeshed and in which they joyfully participate. Common Consciousness
 
Participation mystique is the secr et of artistic cr eation and consists of a
swallowing up of the individual by the Secr et Self, so that the artist becomes
an outlet for the manifestation of the beauty and variety and infinite
complexity of universal mind. No one truly does a thing well when they do it
with conscious intention. Effectiveness in action is always the r esult of
unthinking naturalness. W e do not come to skill in works thr ough objective
analysis of our action as separate fr om the action of others but thr ough a
complete identification of ourselves with the work to be done. SamuelTaylor Coleridge wr ote, “Fr om my very childhood, I have been accustomed
to abstract, and as it wer e, unr ealize whatever of mor e than common
interest my eyes dwelled on, and then by a sort of transfusion and
transmission of my consciousness to identify myself with an object. ”
Participation in the life of another thr ough a mystic medium of common
consciousness is the essence of artistic cr eation. When we affect to do
something thr ough conscious intention and at the ur ging of the separate
and unique desir es of the ego, we ar e performing by the light of one candle
in an ar ena wher e thousands of kilowatts ar e available. W e cannot possibly
create a true and effective work thr ough the limited knowledge and tiny
scope of our conscious mind. All intentioned works of art ar e flat and
useless and depict only clichés and ar e not truly works of art at all but only
a kind of syncr etism of the elements of knowledge available to the ego. Such
effort in writing is journalism; in art, poster painting; in music, dollar
mongering; and those who perform thus, even though masquerading under
the mantle of artist, ar e actually destr oying themselves thr ough
knowledgeable corrupting of their talent. Every one of us has a talent in some area of our nature, as big a talent as has
ever existed, and if this talent has not manifested it is because our egoistic
nature has dammed it up. No matter how long the dam has existed, no
matter how tightly controlled the egoistic nature, the dam can be broken and
the power can be let loose and we can realize the highest level of our talent
and live the life of the artist incarnate. T o turn the eye within and to release
the egoistic nature from selfish desire is the first thing to be done. Once the
whole nature is turned over to a power greater than it is, to be used for
whatever purpose, without aim or intention, then the power comes through,
then we begin to be transformed, performing naturally in all circumstances,
guided correctly in all actions. Psychic Position
 There is tremendous joy in correct psychic positioning of the ego. There is a
feeling of usefulness that comes to us, a rooted certainty in our soul that we
are performing in the best manner possible. This is the feeling of “grace”
that comes to religious people. This is the time of creativity that comes to
artists. This is the period of great productivity that comes to businesspeople. This is the time of superior skill that comes to athletes. Each serves,
performing under the impulsion of an intelligence and talent so vastly
superior to the surface mind that the relationship is accepted as a happy
child follows a loving parent. Of this time of attunement and consequent
creation, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote:
 
One can hardly reject completely the idea that one is the mere incarnation
or mouthpiece or medium of some almighty power. The notion of revelation
describes the condition quite simply; by which I mean that something
profoundly convulsive and disturbing suddenly becomes visible and audible
with indescribable definiteness and exactness. One hears — one does not
seek; one takes — one does not ask who gives: A thought flashes out like
lightning, inevitably without hesitation — I have never had any choice
about it. Everything occurs quite without volition, as if in an eruption of
freedom, independence, power and divinity. It takes courage to push of f into the unknown realms of the subconscious. It
takes daring and boldness to abandon the little ship of egoistic self and
swim to that uncharted island of the Secret Self that lies beyond the
horizon. Many people cling to their egoistic natures as if they might be
saved by them instead of inevitably abandoned. Pain and frustration and
ineffectuality are the only rewards that come to those who follow their ego,
and yet they often cling to their false idol through thick and thin, much as a
drowning person grasps at a straw. Often they have so educated themselves
to the existence of the phantom they worship that even when they see they
are deluded, they cannot bear to part with their ghost. But part they must,
push of f into the uncharted regions of the subconscious they must, for
finally their ego-self abandons them altogether, breaks down and
disintegrates with the disintegration of the body. In the end they realize thatthey must throw themselves upon the mercy and grace of something infinite
and eternal, which caused them to be born in the first place and now causes
them to die. No Daring Is Fatal
 
Accident, perversion, illness, and ineptitude are the lot of the apprehensive. The prize is always to the bold, and the courageous own the universe. But
despite these obvious facts, the majority of people cower in caves and
refuse to abandon the flimsiest security and strike out in quest of the great
and the good. If you have the courage to take a chance, you will not be
abandoned by fate. The universe works on the side of those who aspire. It
gives wings to birds and fins to fish and touches the toes of the tightrope
walker with magic. “No daring is fatal,” wrote the French Surrealist writer
René Crevel. The Secret Self has a cherished place for its torchbearers. Along the tenuous lines of evolution the bold and the brave lead a mighty
advance. An irresistible force proceeds out of those who have courage and
tenacity in their hearts; they cannot be stopped because they are being used
by an infinite and omnipotent power. But those who pull the shells of their
egos about them and refuse either to dare or to aspire are by this
psychological act squeezing the juices of life from their bodies and their
souls; they must inevitably disintegrate because they have refused to grow. To let go of ego and to center oneself in the consciousness of universal
mind is the greatest adventure possible because it means casting of f from
safe shores and voyaging beyond visible horizons. Y et once this initial step
is made, once we cease responding to the material world, once we turn our
minds and bodies and hearts over to the Secret Self, we are astounded at
once by our inner joy and serenity. Only the surface self can know fear, and
once it has been subordinated, so is fear subordinated. The ego has
something to lose only because it sees itself as separate. Once this idea of
separateness has given over to a basic perception of unity, we no longer
know fear because we have nothing to lose. A sense of being a part of allthings and a part of all life is a psychic condition that produces the most
indescribable satisfaction. It is the ecstasy reported by mystics, the sense of
creativity reported by artists, the religious revelation reported by the saints. It is denied no one, is possible to all. Once it comes to us, it provides a
springboard for the development of a talent by which we are able to express
the infinite nature of the Divine. Metaphysical Adventur e
 
Religious revelation is exactly the same thing as creative activity. They are
both metaphysical adventures. They involve the acquisition of a total
instead of a partial view of the universe. They are out of time and space and
individuality and are centered in eternal terms and whole significances. Talent develops in us when our spiritual awakening has begun because
talent is inherent in each of us, and the purpose of life is that we be creative. When the spiritual awakening is true, so will the talent be true, and not
compulsive or obsessional, allowing us to perform our work out of sheer
joy, dropping our fruits like a ripe tree. It then becomes possible for us to
obey our instincts and intuitions and not to be inhibited in our actions by
what others expect of us. W e get near the heart of truth because we see the
sham and hypocrisy that are bound to partiality. We subordinate this
partiality completely in all our actions and thought, and the talent that is
visited upon us is the talent of something beyond us. Art speaks to us in symbols of the universality of our true being. By it we
perceive a portion of that ecstasy and unity from which we have sprung. By
it we are able to achieve an inkling of the great destiny that awaits
humanity. Someday we will become thoroughly awakened spiritually and
consequently completely religious, not just believers as a few people are
now, but knowers, causers, prime movers, thoroughly enlightened, gods in
fact, even as now in potential. The attitude that results from the discovery of
this inherent talent is not one of intentioned action or thought, but one that
looks for discovery. The creative writer does not take up pen with an idea of“making” a certain thing, but only to see what will come through them and
manifest itself on paper. Those who truly use their talent are able to do so
only because they let it use them. The correct mental attitude is that
whatever is there will come through and need neither be started nor
stopped. Y ou do not have to know what is coming or what it will look like
but simply to have an open mind and let it through. Never even bother to
look at it closely, for if you do, you may think you know what it is, and by
that mental fixation you will make it static and it no longer will grow and be
flexible and creative. All that is great and good and lasting springs out of
the subconscious processes of the Secret Self, and when we are moved by
our greater mind we exhibit the talents that are ours. God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone,
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow bone. — WILLIAM BUTLER YEA TS
 
Creative Labor
 
A thousand faces has the Secret Self, approached by a thousand doors, and
when one is opened and that face beheld, there bursts through the individual
a torrent of creativeness, a kind of supertalent. Partial is the human being,
barely aware, a surface manifestation of unlimited realms of subconscious
intelligence, but there is a path by which each of us may penetrate universal
mind, and when we do, we create our own talent, depicting for the world
some particular aspect of the Divine. No one is denied talent except by
themself. When they allow their consciousness to be hemmed in by the ego,they are unable to pull upon subconscious levels for the inspiration and
drive necessary to creative work. Unique individuality is the vehicle which the Secret Self uses for the
manifestation of talent, and is lar gely being stultified by our modern
industrial society. Our education teaches conformity. The industrial machine
needs workers, and workers must be predictable, and predictability, as far as
society is concerned, is best obtained by inculcating the same social
conscience in each person. Consequently, most people live a routine that is
not of their own choosing but has been selected for them by society. Their
opinions also have been given to them by the group, and they accept them
as part of the condition of their lives. All thinking is done for them. They
believe in the political institution that they belong to, the labor union that
they belong to, the state, city, and community that they belong to. They are
unable to make an objective decision about anything they encounter but
react to everything as it af fects their preformed opinions. This egoistic basis
for judging things is completely false and completely static because it does
not allow the individual to grow. Truth in some final analysis may be
absolute, but for the individual it is an individual matter. What is good for
one is not necessarily good for all, but neither is the good of all necessarily
best for the individual. As long as humans continue to live in groups, social conscience will
continue to have a distinct and necessary function, but such social
conscience must make provision for individual growth and responsibility,
for it now tends to defeat itself by making automatons of its adherents. Large industrial firms are finding that the idea box in the plant pays
dividends. When workers are encouraged to think creatively about the
business in which they labor, their mental attitude toward that business is
changed. They not only become more ef ficient in their tasks, but sooner or
later contribute toward the growth of the business. No one is built to put
nuts on bolts all day. That is the task of a machine. But a person may endure
such a job if allowed to pursue means by which it may be done more
efficiently. Naturally the worker will not be disposed to such activity if they
feel that it may result in their being without a job at all, but only if they feel
that they will be rewarded with a better job or a better income. The basic problems in industrial advancement are delineated by the
opposing forces of labor and management. Or ganized labor has grown as a
protection to the worker from exploitation, but its psychological position
has become static. It is lar gely opposed to advances in technology that may
do away with job categories, and “featherbedding” in all industries has
achieved such proportion as to be a distinct burden on ef ficient operation. The solution to ef fective industrial growth is not likely to be found in
organized labor, but rather in an enlightened management which makes its
labor force part of its creative ef fort, rewards each worker on an individual
basis, and allows participation of every member of the or ganization in the
fruits of that or ganization. When such industrial enlightenment finally is
achieved, there will be a unification of labor and management because their
aims will be the same, and each person will have a creative responsibility
toward their work. Productivity
 
Creative talent demands production. The displacement of ego in favor of
the guidance of the Secret Self results in our being driven to accomplish
tasks that heretofore we would have considered impossible. No mountain is
too high, no wilderness too broad, and the creative soul attuned to the
Divine labors and produces unremittingly. Thomas Carlyle wrote, “Even in
the meanest sorts of labor the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind
of real harmony the instant he sets himself to work. Produce. W ere it but
the pitifullest, infinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it in God’ s
name. ”
For the most part we are too inhibited and repressed to be able to express
the personality that is uniquely our own. The ego-controlled nature acts
always in accord with an idea of how people expect it to act. Since it does
not know itself, it does not know how it truly feels, but adopts feelings from
desire-goals rather than from the individuality innate to it. People who
endure all to make money are a classic example of repression andinhibition. They swindle their inferiors and fawn on their superiors, and by
this consequent warping of moral values so completely repress the Secret
Self that it is impossible for them to be creative or spontaneous in any area
of their activity. Making money is not an end in life. Pursuing the god
Mammon has only fatal results. But achievement is one of life’ s primary
aims, and achievement often results in monetary success. T o be what we
naturally are and to live and act as we naturally were created should be the
primary aim of each of us. W e have been put here on earth by a power
greater than we are; we have been manifested in our particular form so as to
reflect in humanity an image of the Divine. W e cannot reflect this image or
do the work natural to us if we become repressed by centering our
consciousness in our egoistic natures. Spontaneity is the secr et of doing things well. W e act in accor d with our
whole natur e when we do things feelingly instead of thinkingly. Reason is
valuable too, but it serves a limited world and a limited knowledge. When
we act only accor ding to r eason, we act with the bar est facts in our
possession. But when we act instinctively and intuitively, we act as an
instrument of the Secr et Self, and behind our action lie all knowledge, all
intelligence, all power. When you ar e spontaneous in your actions and in
your thoughts, you ar e being yourself, and when you ar e being yourself, you
are a hundr ed times mor e effective, mor e joyful, mor e creative than you ar e
when you ar e ordering your life in accor dance with the aims of the surface
mind. The consciously contr olled and intentioned person is suppr essing
their talent, for they ar e suppr essing the action of the Divine within them. No talent ever is exhibited by the conscious mind or ego, and someone
whose life is or dered by them never can be cr eative. Get into the Game
 
Let yourself go. Shake of f inhibition and fear, and be yourself. Learn to
think and act naturally, spontaneously; harmony and symmetry will enter
your life, and you will discover your inherent talent. Most people never findtheir proper niches simply because they inhibit the talent they possess. It
takes courage to go out on a limb and do the things that are natural. It is
much easier to sit on the sidelines, watch somebody else perform, and
criticize. Monday morning quarterbacks are notorious in football, and in the
world of art it has long been axiomatic that the critic is a frustrated artist. The American writer Fulton Oursler reported:
 
One winter ’s night, many years ago, when I was no mor e than twenty, I was
belaboring a typewriter in the newsr oom of the Baltimor e American. A copy
boy summoned me to the office of the managing editor, a bald-headed old
walrus with white mustaches like hanging gar dens and a perverse sense of
humor. Leaning back in his swivel chair he asked me:
“Do you play the piano. ”
“No, sir. ”
“Fiddle.
It is not luck, but rather the absence of interference from the conscious mind, allowing the paper to propel itself towards the wastebasket.
What is the key to success, according to the author?
To dominate and control, leading to stagnation and failure.
What is the primary aim of the ego?
The ego is a sense of separateness and prevents the individual from being creative, as it seeks to impose its own desires and intentions.
What is the role of the ego in creative work?
It is a means to tap into the infinite and eternal, allowing for the manifestation of the Divine and the creation of something new and innovative.
What is the importance of intuition in creative work?
The sixth sense is an identification with the Secret Self, allowing for the perception of the infinite and eternal, and the manifestation of the Divine.
What is the relationship between the sixth sense and the Divine?