W e do not even dwell alone in our own
bodies, which ar e for the most part a battlegr ound for opposing sides of
our natur e; and as one assumes command, then another , we pr esent the
constantly changing colors of a chameleon. Our Many Selves
 
When engaged in concentrated ef fort, we often talk to ourselves. One part
of us sits in judgment on the other , so that we give vent to little
exclamations of exasperation such as, “Y ou can do better than that, Henry ,
old boy ,” or, “Don’ t be such a bonehead, you can get it!” In this apparent
division of the self, one half assumes a nature that appears above reproach
while the other apparently has the personality of a mischievous, recalcitrant
child. If you ask Henry which of the two he is, he answers that he is Henry . If you ask him who is O r -7 talking to Henry , he achieves a look of utter
blankness, manages to answer at last that he’ s only talking to himself.Well, it isn’ t just a way that Henry has; it’ s a way that all of us have. W e
house within us not one nature, but many; not one self, but a whole myriad
of selves superimposed upon each other like endless reflections in opposing
mirrors; and not one of these selves is our true self, not even all taken
together , but another truer being hidden within, timeless and eternal and
unchanging. The conflicts and oppositions of the many sides of our surface nature are
directly responsible for the prevalence of that psychological disorder called
schizophrenia. Schizophrenics are disoriented with the world and
themselves through intense inner conflicts waged by several of their
different natures. In extreme cases, one, then the other , takes over , so that
they are possessed of several distinct personalities, each as dif ferent from
the other as night from day . A number of clinical cases of this nature have
been studied extensively; one has even been made into a bestselling book,
so that by and lar ge people are finally becoming aware of the wavering,
mystical being each of us really is. Psychologically sound people are those who take char ge of their own
personalities, refuse to allow themselves to be influenced by the wind,
impose a discipline upon themselves predicated upon the goals they wish to
achieve. Y et despite this “taking char ge,” despite the discipline imposed
upon the surface nature and inner parts of the psyche, the psychologically
sound person must remain subservient to an inner hidden part of their being,
that indestructible and bright core within that sustains them and gives them
life. If they do not, then a sickness of all their parts aggrandizes their ego,
disassociates them from reality , causes them to assume the psychologically
functional disorder known as paranoia. Their blown-up ego then has shut
them of f from the supporting and sustaining Secret Self, and they are
heading directly for destruction. Most of the dictators of our modern
political systems have been of this type, carrying their countries and
themselves to destruction in a blind and headlong rush. Infinity in the Finite 
It becomes obvious, once we give it close consideration, that we not only
are at war with nature, but actually are at war with ourselves. W e are such
battlegrounds within that often we cannot contain our turmoil, and our
entire psyche becomes permeated with a sickness that makes it of little use
to the world or ourselves. The human being is more than a physical body ,
and the misty shape of each human’ s invisible aura is something that cannot
be contained within boundaries or assigned categories or weighed or
measured or counted. All that we are and can hope to be is mental, is the
essence of some gigantic intelligence in the lap of which we nestle and from
which we are fed and nurtured as if from subterranean springs. This
gigantic intelligence is the Secret Self of the universe; it is also,
paradoxically enough, the Secret Self of each of us. No amount of rhetoric prevails against disbelief; no ar gument dissuades the
person of faith. Still, the enigma is there. How is it possible that something
infinite in size and scope, like a universal mind, can be housed within the
tiny, finite body of an individual? T o be infinite is to be one. More than one
of anything infinite automatically is not infinite, for anything infinite
occupies all the space there is and therefore does not leave room for
anything else. Thus anything infinite is exactly the same as anything within
it, for all of anything infinite has to be at each particular place at each
particular time. Now this may be a pretty hard dose to swallow , but it is
perhaps as scientifically sound as the quantum theory of physics, and what
it essentially means is this: if there is intelligence behind life, and there is
every reason to believe there must be, then all of that intelligence is innate
in each creation of that intelligence. Thus universal mind or the Secret Self
is complete and entire within each of us. W e have only to discover it for its
power and perfection to be ours. But neither the sear ch nor the finding is easy . We are so steeped in our
egotism, so encysted within our myriad surface selves, that vision to
penetrate the illusion is har d to acquir e, is developed only by ar duous
mental effort and spiritual discipline. Underlying all the turmoil, supporting
the contest between the surface selves, giving each life dir ection and
purpose, is the gar den fr om which springs personality , the Secr et Self, aplace of calm and certitude within each of us. Ther e is no struggle in the
Secret Self. It knows. Its mer e act of per ception is an act of cr eation, for
seeing pr ecedes being in this most mental of all places wher e thought and
idea ar e always prior to physical fact. Behind the W all
 
Carl Jung has stated that most people confuse “self-knowledge” with
knowledge of their conscious ego personalities, so that anyone with any ego
at all takes it for granted that they know themself. Actually , they know only
the ego and its contents and have little if any knowledge of the vast and
shadowy ar eas of the subconscious fr om whence all the impulsions and
compulsions that form their active life spring. No one is fr ee who feels that
their motivations originate in their conscious ego personality . They ar e
moved about in life like puppets by the subconscious, and all their elaborate
reasonings and painful arrivals at conscious per ceptions ar e made after the
fact of their commitment to certain ideas and actions, never befor e.
Between the surface self and the Secr et Self lies an opaque wall,
impenetrable to the gaze of the ego and yielding its secr ets only to one who
has expanded their consciousness beyond the limits of their conscious mind. Materialists who pride themselves on never accepting anything but a
proven physical fact have mer ely accepted blindness as a condition of their
being, and what they think is fr eedom is simply servitude of the highest
degree. T urning one’ s back on the subconscious does not obliterate it. The
individual is not sprung into being by an effort of self, but comes pr eformed
by something other than the ego that fr onts their consciousness during life. The question is, who is the true r esident within — the ego that gr ows fr om
experience, or the life for ce that animates fr om the beginning? Reflection
leads us inescapably to the conclusion that the true person within is the
hidden dweller in all things, that the ego is only a mask donned by this
dweller for a moment in some inscrutable play being acted out for its secr et
delight.The constant search of the human psyche, as long as it confines itself to the
ego and the surface nature, must continue to be fruitless, for it concerns
itself with a wraith. T o truly know humanity — our actual nature, origin,
purpose, destiny — the deeper regions of consciousness must be probed. These are all subconscious, making up the vast, jumbled, tremendously
powerful, even frightening mental area below consciousness. Who knows
what things are possible to this area of our being? Sigmund Freud, having
exposed its awesome powers, is reported once to have confessed that he
created the dogma of his sexual theory of human behavior because some
powerful bulwark of reason was needed against the black flood of occultism
that might spring from the subconscious. Y et it is just that occultism, just
that black flood that most needs to be studied, for the Secret Self lies there. The Unutter ed Part of Life
 
The Ouija board and divining rod are not just parlor games or the tools of
crackpots but are the best of illustrations that within us there is a being
enormously dif ferent from our surface selves and which has powers of
perception and knowledge vastly greater than our conscious minds. A man
with a forked hazel stick can find water beneath the surface of the ground,
and this remarkable feat is true not because there is any af finity between the
water and the hazel stick, but because there exists in the subconscious of the
man a means of perceiving that water underlies a particular piece of ground. The stick turns downward and points out the water because of unconscious
muscular reactions on the part of the man, but he will swear it does so of its
own volition; and to the degree that the turning down is originated by the
Secret Self and not by his surface self, his claim is true. In any case, the
stick turns down, the well is dug, and water is there. The man couldn’ t have
seen the water , the stick couldn’ t have known it was there. Some other
thing, some invisible force was at work. That thing, that force, is the Secret
Self.Thomas Carlyle wrote, “The uttered part of a man’ s life, let us always
repeat, bears to the unuttered, unconscious part a small unknown
proportion. He himself never knows it, much less do others.” W e wend our
unheeding oblivious ways through life, captives of forces we neither
understand nor are aware exist, and we labor under the delusion that we are
free. This blindness has not been forced upon us because of our relationship
to life, nor is it necessary in order to preserve our sanity or individuality as
some casuists would have us believe. It is simply an inevitable step in the
evolution of mind out of matter , and even now is being transcended by
those individuals suf ficiently evolved to correctly perceive the Secret Self
and its existence within. Mind seeks to know; its goal is a constantly
increasing awareness. Expanding consciousness is apparent wherever we
look, almost as if a mental explosion had taken place in the heart of the
universe and now speeds outward in all directions, encompassing
everything. Liberation fr om Bondage
 
The surface mind is not the true mind, is but the barest fractional part of the
true mind, and we never know our power and ef fectuality until we turn
away from this troublesome false self and originate thought and action on
the deeper planes of our being. Then we become as a power doubled upon
itself, having “hitched a ride” on illimitable ener gy. Below the surface self
and the conscious mind, sustaining and supporting both but remaining
infinitely greater than either , is universal subconscious mind, the vast mind
that springs into being all living things, that underlies life like a great and
infinite ocean of intelligence and ener gy. This subconscious mind is not just
a hodgepodge reservoir of instincts, ur ges, and long-for gotten memories
individual to each person, nor a kind of cell memory of pain and pleasure,
as some psychologists would have us believe, but encompasses infinitely
more, the whole scope of creation, of space and time and knowledge and
purpose. And all of this mind is in every person, and no one has a lar gershare of it than others, and all of it is available to each of us this very
moment; it is actually the sustaining self of every one of us. Frustration and suf fering are the human lot in this stage of evolution
because we have separated ourselves from the root source of our power . This has been done as consciousness has evolved into self-consciousness,
for the particular stage of self-consciousness at which we have arrived is
embryonic; it is only self-consciousness in the narrowest sense of the word. It delimits itself by the boundaries of the physical senses and therefore
makes of itself a tiny speck in an infinitely lar ge and living universe. It is
small wonder that we are blinded to the beginnings and ends of life, so tiny
is our newly acquired sense of being. Y et even now it reaches groping and
hopeful hands toward an alliance with its greater self, and it is this alliance
that will finally liberate it from bondage to the flesh, from the limitations of
space and time and matter . The Other Person in Y ou
 
All this may sound pretty obscure, even occult, and since the average
person today is so grounded and steeped in materialism, there may be those
of you who balk at this point and say , “Prove it. Show me evidence of
Universal Subconscious Mind.” There is evidence aplenty . Various hypnotic techniques are continually exposing layers of the
subconscious that indicate that they are not the personal property of the
person under hypnosis. For example, someone may be hypnotized and
recall intimate details of a life not their own, so that the unwary researcher
will be led to believe that they are recalling a life lived previously . Such
evidence is continually of fered in support of the reincarnation thesis, but no
such actual proof ever has been forthcoming. People under hypnosis have
spoken languages they neither consciously understood nor ever had heard,
described in detail places and times where they had never been and could
not have conscious knowledge of, performed all manner of clairvoyant featsthat indicate the amazing power and scope of the subconscious; and the
indisputable evidence is of a single entity only , existing in all persons but
the individual property of none. Someone else lives in your body other than the surface mind which you
have long regarded as yourself — a bigger , finer , more dynamic, more
gifted, and powerful person than you ever have imagined yourself to be —
but it is your true self nevertheless, the real you. Its action and power are
behind every thought you have and move you make, and if your conscious
mind is opposed to this real self, then you are torn on the rack of indecision
and opposition and meet nothing but frustration and disappointment
wherever you turn. But once your conscious mind and surface self are lent
as tools to this subconscious self, then of a sudden you are a whole and
glorious thing, and you find yourself proceeding along life’ s pathways with
surety and power . Your Senior Partner
 
To fully uncover the Secret Self is no doubt the final goal of evolution. When the inhabiting spirit has fully emer ged from matter , then the Godhead
will be revealed at last with all its conscious power and infinite realization. Those who join this irresistible tide are swept onward by unsuspected
energies to accomplish feats far beyond their poor mortal selves. They have
hitched a ride on cosmic power , and their ener gies and inspirations spill
over the boundaries of their surface selves and touch all those with whom
they associate. They become leaders, doers, creators, and achieve a kind of
omnipotence because they are led in performance by an infallible and
irresistible force. You can talk to the Secret Self. Y ou can go into conference with it much as
you might consult an all-wise and benevolent parent or the president of the
business that employs you. Once you have the hang of it and come to fully
realize beyond any shadow of doubt its potentiality and possibility , thendaily conference will be as natural and fitting to your mode of living as the
act of breathing. This is “the Father that dwells within you,” spoken of by
Jesus. This is the senior side of your dual personality , the detached one that
judges the action and is untouched by it. This is the subconscious mind
referred to by psychologists, the mind that never sleeps, thinks when all is
still, works with surety and calmness in the midst of the greatest turmoil. This is the talisman that delivers you the “hunch,” that brings your fortune;
the idea for your book, painting, or composition; an inner vision; a new path
to tread. This is the deep center of your being to which you retreat in
meditation and prayer , where joy , serenity , and bliss reign because all is
known and truly understood. Haven’ t you ever contacted it? Set that right at once. As soon as you know
the Secret Self is there, your close relationship to it is assured, for who
would turn their back on the source of their redemption from pain and
suffering and frustration? An Experiment
 
Take a simple finger ring. T ie it to a thin thread about twelve inches long. Hold the loose end of the thread between your thumb and forefinger . Let the
ring dangle. Now tell the Secret Self that you are going to ask it some
questions, that if the ring moves in a small circle you will understand the
answer to be “yes,” that if it sways back and forth in a linear path you will
understand the answer to be “no.” Ask the question aloud; hold the ring and
wait. Don’ t try to stop it from moving, and make no attempt to start it
moving. It will move. At first, the movement will be erratic, but soon it will
settle into a back and forth or circular motion. Eventually , your questions
will be answered instantaneously . Then you will have made a direct contact
with the Secret Self, and you will realize with comprehending awe that
someone infinitely aware dwells within you.There is no limit to the power of the Secret Self. Y our whole ef fort from the
moment of your realization of its existence should be to become acquainted
with it, to explore its infinite facets and discover the keys that unlock its
powers. Once you begin to guide your life in accordance with its
perceptions and motivations you will begin to take on an infallibility in
works that bodes success in every undertaking, every relationship. Y ou will
find that you are accompanied always by a feeling of inner joy and ener gy
and well-being where before you were always gnawed at by vague anxieties
and fears and feelings of lethar gy and fatigue. The color of the sky will
change; the world will take on a new and meaningful and exciting aspect. You will have placed yourself in tune with the guiding and motivating force
of the universe, and it will buoy your spirits heavenward. No task will
appear too great, no obstacle insurmountable. Supporter of the W orlds
 
Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, “Every man takes the limits of his own field of
vision for the limits of the world.” And it is this blinding quality of the
surface psyche, that it cannot see beyond the limits it imposes upon itself,
that gives inherent characteristics of weakness and incapability to every
mortal. Even so, the degree is markedly dif ferent in the limitations we
impose upon ourselves. Some of us build towers to the sky , challenge
nature in her most inaccessible places, make our whole lives a constant
attack on mental and physical barriers. Others accept all the limitations they
encounter , live in fear of self-manufactured ogres, cannot challenge,
expand, or grow because they are slaves of the tiny surface self and have
not glimpsed or understood the giant within them. There is hope for those
who aspire; their place among the gods is assured. But those who hang back
and never dare and never take action are withering on the tree of life, and
all their wishes will not change anything as long as those wishes are not
strong enough to prompt them to attack their fear -created walls.Once you have discovered the Secret Self within, then it becomes a gradual
process of turning over your work, your goals and aspirations, to it. Y ou
cannot build a perfect life on the imperfect foundation of the surface self. It
will not support even the flimsiest edifice, will crumble under the slightest
pressure. All must be built on the Secret Self, which already supports the
worlds and the universes and will support your life, be you savant or saint,
and without the slightest tremor . Of all the causes that conspire to blind
Man’ s erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules. Is pride, the never -failing vice of fools. — ALEXANDER POPE
 
Facing Fear
 
It is vanity — or pride, if you will — which is the true enemy of the Secret
Self. For with consciousness centered in the surface self, with the vanity
that self-centeredness brings, an opaque veil is drawn over all spiritual
perception, and we live isolated from the wellsprings of our being. W e may
struggle through life many years in this manner , attacking our problems and
pursuing our goals with the persistent ener gy of an enterprising fly , but
eventually we must be brought up short by the realization that we simply
are inef fectual and we had best find a new blueprint of thought and action
or give up the ghost altogether . One ant alone does not topple a rubber tree
plant. Only the concerted ef fort and teamwork of thousands of ants make
this feat possible; and the ener gy and ef fort of one human being is nothing
by itself but is everything when it proceeds from the source of all ener gy,for then it is attuned to the tides and forces of the cosmos, becomes in a
manner an irresistible force, a kind of infallible action. Success stories often ar e fictions concocted by the human desir e to achieve
supremacy over cir cumstance. Most people fit into a kind of equation. They
react a certain way when confr onted with certain cir cumstances, and
therefore must act a certain way always when confr onted with those same
circumstances. For example, suppose we ar e afraid of gr oups of people
when we ar e unacquainted with them and expected to cir culate amongst
them and communicate. If early in life we give in to this fear and avoid new
groups, such behavior becomes a habit and one that we eventually find
impossible to br eak. Ther efore, all thr ough our lives, when confr onted with
a strange social situation, we will avoid it thr ough one pr etense or another ,
simply because we have built up a habit of acceding to fear . We are
absolutely pr edictable in each cir cumstance of this type, and we ar e
predictable because we ar e not fr ee, because we ar e slaves to our fears. W e
become automatons led ar ound by the nose, a victim of cir cumstances
because we have not master ed our feelings. W e tend to r egard circumstance
itself as the evil, saying, “People in gr oups ar e uninter esting. They bor e
me.” People don’ t bor e us at all; they scar e hell out of us; so much so that
we avoid them at all costs, leave a lar ge blank in a portion of our psyche,
and ar e completely frustrated in this ar ea of our gr owth. And it is our own
fault. W e simply cannot bring ourselves to muster the courage necessary to
face our fear . Over coming W eakness
 
“You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometime fight it out or
perish; and if that be so, why not now and where you stand?” Fittingly
enough, these lines were penned by a writer bedfast through illness, but he
turned that illness into a great victory , eventually recovering his health and
giving the world masterpieces of literature. His name — Robert Louis
Stevenson.We must not be soft with ourselves no matter what our goals or positions. All things fare best when they are constantly tested by opposition. The
sturdiest grass is that which must grow through concrete. The coddled lawn
burns clean away at first exposure to sun or wind. If we have an aching
muscle we must learn to exercise it, not to rest it, and we will find the
muscle soon healed. If our psyche is closing us in, cutting us of f from life
and growth and expansion, then we must learn to test and use and expand
that psyche. If we do not, the psyche will atrophy , cut of f completely all
normal ties with life. Still, to be human is to be weak, is to be subject to sin
and suf fering and error , and as long as we live we never truly overcome any
of these; but as long as we live we must try , for we truly live only when we
try. What we finally have to learn is that we cannot expect an ultimate or
even a satisfying victory over our infirmities when we meet them one by
one, but only when we have found a way of assembling all on the same
field of battle for one final showdown. What results then must be a
complete step forward in our evolution as human beings, for no one is ever
defeated who gathers courage to face their assembled weaknesses. “How is this possible?” someone may ask. “How does one gather all their
weaknesses in one spot and overcome them?” It is not simple or even
apparent. In isolated areas, yes. If you have a tendency to be afraid of new
situations, then you can build up confidence about them by forcing yourself
to enter into them. Sooner or later you are bound to meet each new situation
calmly , if not eagerly , for the general condition of newness has become
familiar . This exercise of willpower , however , while it will tend to give you
courage in every aspect of your life simply because you have met fear in
one area and defeated it, nevertheless will not overcome a tendency to be
lazy, for example, or untruthful, or disloyal, or even to eat too much. As a
matter of fact, it can readily be seen that this helter -skelter treatment of the
unwhole psyche is much like a person trying to plug a series of leaks in a
dike with their fingers. Eventually all ten fingers will be occupied, and still
the new leaks come. The Universal Author 
What is needed is a new approach to the psyche, one that treats it as a single
thing and not as a group of aberrations or incomplete perceptions, and the
approach which gives 100 percent cures in 100 percent of cases is one in
which the individual comes to know and be aware of his Secret Self. Each of us faces life with an undeveloped psyche. It is undeveloped because
it is less than whole, because it is only a partial manifestation of something
greater than itself. Only insofar as it approaches awareness of this greater
self does it approximate wholeness or self-suf ficiency . That sense of self
which we use in our daily rounds of ef fort is useful only insofar as it is
larger than the task we undertake. It is perfectly up to peeling potatoes, for
instance, but when something lar ge is asked of it, then it may cower in the
corner . Bridges are built by the Secret Self and not by the surface ego. Towers and highways and planes and automobiles and television are
wrought by the Secret Self. All books are written by the same author , all
pictures painted by the same artist, all music written by the same composer . The ego of the individual is simply not up to such tasks, and as long as we
live entrapped in bondage to our surface self, then our ef forts can only be
crowned by such puny results as fit our ego. Only when we tear ourselves
away , divorce ourselves from vanity and conceit and ego and surface self,
can we at last perceive the true dimensions of the being that dwells within
us. Then we know our true self, then we turn our life over to it. Then our
efforts take on a grandeur and purpose that are bound to achieve noble and
vigorous ends, for the power that engrosses us proceeds from outside us and
carries us along on its sur ging tides and is greater than us in every way . Any man or woman whose life is aimed at creative ef fort is bound to
discover the Secret Self sooner or later . No one can closet themself in the
nebulous realm of the mental and spiritual without early coming to know
that there dwells within them a mental being of enormous dimension and
power , contact with which has the power to ennoble and illumine each
moment. The author seeks his muse with all his heart. The painter pauses
with raised brush, awaiting inspiration. W e are moved from within toward
each aspiration, provided it is loftier than the limitations of the surface self;
and so the world belongs to those who aspire, who dare, who try , for allaspiration is only ef fort against the prison of the surface self, and all such
effort is the alchemy by which the common clay of our little egos is
transmuted into something transcendental and precious. An Artist Finds His T alent
 
A number of years ago there lived in a poor section of a lar ge city a man
who had given up the years of his youth to perfect his art. He lived
meagerly on what few pennies he could earn making charcoal sketches in
waterfront bars, and he spent every moment he could spare in front of his
easel. He painted ships, every conceivable type and kind, at sea, becalmed
and in storm, in port, loading and unloading, ships under sail, ships under
steam, sleek yachts, wallowing freighters, men-o’-war . He loved the sea and
he loved to paint, and by the amount of time he had spent at each he should
have mastered his art very well, but he hadn’ t. Somehow it escaped him. His paintings were not amateurish: they exhibited the hand of an artisan; yet
they always seemed clichés, as if they were saying something that had been
said a thousand times before. People would look at them and even comment
that they had seen them before. They hadn’ t, of course. The paintings just
contrived to look like others that had been done. The painter realized this fact only too well. His work was intensely
dissatisfying to him. He often would relate that when he first was struck
with an idea for a new subject he would be deeply elated and would set to
work with a vengeance. Then, as the work progressed under his hand, he
gradually would come to see that it was not a thing of inspiration at all, but
wooden, pat, said before, a reproduction, and even before the work was
finished he would be gripped by a depression so intense that he scarcely
could finish. Still, he drove himself unremittingly . He felt a talent was
within him, and he was determined to get it out. Once, in a rage at himself,
he burned all the paintings in his studio, nearly setting fire to the building. Another time he was so furious at his hand for its clumsiness that he badly
lacerated his fingers, intent on cutting them of f. All this, of course, wouldindicate that our friend was not psychologically stable, but perhaps it was
simply that his provocation was great, so enormous was the creative ur ge
that constantly goaded him. Like most of the great lessons that life teaches, his enlightenment came
dear. When war broke out he had just finished a period of deep
dissatisfaction with his painting. Disgustedly , he decided to turn his back on
it forever . He shipped out as a merchant seaman aboard a freighter bound
for Murmansk. The convoy was attacked by German planes and submarines
as it skirted the Norwegian coast. Our painter ’s ship was sunk, and he
wound up in a lifeboat on the frigid and stormy Arctic Ocean. For days and
nights they drifted, fighting the freezing cold, trying to stay alive. At one
juncture the skies cleared long enough for them to be sighted by German
planes, and they were bombed and strafed. Five men were killed, three
others seriously wounded, dying that night. A day later , two more died from
exposure. Finally there were left in the boat only the painter and the ship’ s
purser , an elderly and apparently frail man who surprisingly still survived. “It’s no use,” said the painter at length. “There is no hope for us, and we
might as well slip over the side right now and be done with it.”
“That’ s not for us to decide,” said the purser . “Who then?” asked the painter . The purser sat calmly , and his eyes were kind. “Do we decide to be born?”
he asked. “Do we decide our nationality , our race, our heritage? Someone or
something else does, I think. Get yourself quiet and listen. Perhaps you will
hear a voice speak within you. Then you will learn whether you are to live
or die.”
The end seemed near . Surely it was useless to struggle further . For the first
time in his life the painter was able to give over direction of his destiny to
something other than his own ego. The bitter cold of approaching night
descended on them. Just before dusk a British seaplane swooped out of the
fog with a roar , saw them, landed on the sea, took them aboard. They were
in a London hospital that night.After some weeks of convalescence, our painter once again tried his hand at
his easel. What emer ged from the canvas startled him. It was as if a hand
other than his own guided the brush, chose the colors, as though a mind
other than his own envisaged the scene. V iewing the complete painting he
felt a sur ge of joy . This was the talent he had fought to bring forth, and now
it was flowing! In rapid succession he completed six paintings, packed them
off to a London art dealer , where they were received with open arms. They
were an instantaneous success, launching him on a long and remarkable
career . Years later he was asked about his early period of struggle and how his
talent happened to mature. “It didn’ t mature,” he answered. “It was there all the time. I just never could
bring it out because I thought it belonged to me. As soon as I was able to
see that it belonged to a being greater than I, it emer ged of its own accord
and used me, where before I had been trying vainly to use it.”
Mystical, yes, a kind of cosmic perception by the artist of his muse, but a
far greater secret is hidden here. Our painter stumbled upon the
psychological relationship of ego to Secret Self that brooks no failure, that
inevitably leads to success, for it is a relationship in which all thought and
action proceed out of a universal intelligence and omnipotent power that
makes each work absolutely ef fective. Fall fr om Grace
 
Our consciousness is anchored falsely in our surface selves, and it is this
delusion that is our fall from grace, for by it we do not know who we truly
are and fancy ourselves as tiny isolated selves in a vast and overwhelming
universe. The gradual opening and unfolding of consciousness to that point
where the vistas within our psyche are revealed is the goal of evolution
itself, as life and intelligence and being manifest out of matter , and
eventually control and dominate matter . As long as we remain chained tothe illusion of the surface self we are but puppets of sensation, reacting this
way or that to every situation that confronts us, little more than absolutely
predictive ciphers in an equation aimed at producing the free, thinking,
omnipotent human. Y et this condition of freedom and omnipotence needs
only perception, for without doubt the mere act of perceiving the Secret Self
is akin to becoming one with the Secret Self. How then shall we see? How
shall our eyes be opened? Perhaps the most important step in discerning the Secret Self is
disillusionment with the ef fectiveness of the surface self, for how is it
possible to see when we still rejoice in our blindness? So it is that spiritual
awareness, psychic enlightenment, seldom comes to one in youth, for youth
is preoccupied with the senses, pursues all manner of sensual inamorata,
and is for the most part completely oblivious of the prison which the senses
have erected. Passing years bring the disappointments, the frustrations and
inadequacies that cause the seeking soul to cast about within psychic realms
for a new foundation on which to erect a more reliable and ef fective sense
of self. When this comes, eventual enlightenment is assured, for no one
seeks but they find, knocks but the door is opened. The mere act of turning
away from the senses and the surface self seems suf ficient. The veil is
removed, the blinder disintegrated, and an event in psychic life that was
brought about by suf fering and frustration and disillusionment turns out to
be the greatest of blessings in disguise. A new world is revealed. The death
of the surface self actually turns out to be a new birth. Resignation of the
senses from control of the person turns out to be a seizing of the reins of the
life by a new and dominant and ef fective force. When the inner eye of the
soul is opened, there descends upon the whole being a unity of parts and
force, a vitality and serenity that remake that life completely , that lend
magic and grandeur to everything that is touched or taken into
consciousness. Who sees with equal eye, as God of all
A hero perish or a sparrow fall
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’dAnd now a bubble burst, and now a world. — ALEXANDER POPE
 
Path to Illumination
 
While it is true that perception of the indwelling Secret Self ordinarily
comes to harassed mortals only after much suf fering and disillusionment,
nevertheless there is a path by which such suf fering may be avoided in the
main, provided that first the soul is dedicated and sincere in its desire to
make the discovery . The Secret Self is never discovered alone within, but at
the same time is discovered in all places, in all beings, and is found to be
the same in all. Dif ferent forms of life are merely disguises donned for the
moment by the single self that underlies all, that truly is all, a play in which
for the moment the Divine is hidden, in which for that moment it actually
has become in entirety each of the things it has become. All the power and
effectiveness of the Supreme is within you, is yours to use, and is also in
everyone and everything else, existing there behind the curtain of ego-
consciousness, waiting to be discovered. Therefore there is a tremendous
underlying equality to all things under the sun. Each is sprung from the
same substance and has inherent within it the same omnipotent being, and
we are not each of us dif ferent and individual and separate except insofar as
we are incomplete. T o be complete is to be the Secret Self, whole and
entire, without reservation or error . The most painless path to illumination, to perception of the Secret Self, is
thus to arrive at a desire to know the truth that lies behind the surface facade
of the senses and to seek this truth not only within but without, in every
person you meet as well as in yourself. Once this sense of absolute equality
of things and people begins to make itself known to you, then you will
detect a presence in each stone and clod, in each tree and plant, in each
animal and person you meet, locked in a prison dictated by its form to be
sure, but a presence pure and simple of the Secret Self, which has chosenthe masquerade for its own purposes and is not truly locked away from
consciousness of its real self but even now is developing it as we brush at
the veil that separates us from our heritage. Once you sense the presence of the Divine in all things, you are able to
arrive at a sense of equality that makes you in some secret and inviolable
corner of your being untouched by victory or defeat, pleasure or pain,
position or prestige. Y ou become so intent on doing the work of the Secret
Self that you abandon almost altogether the uses of the ego and so achieve a
kind of selflessness in your appearance to the world. Equality is a perfect
psychic position but is impossible to the ego, which seeks forever to be
better than all the egos around it, and if it is not better it is convinced it is
worse and so either becomes blown-up and blind or wounded and fearful
and thus provides the worst of all psychic bases for dealing with life, love,
and accomplishment. T o be equal is to be unafraid. T o know that there
inhabits all others the same being that inhabits you is to achieve a psychic
confidence that enables you to place your life and hopes and ener gies in the
hands of this being without a qualm, with absolute certainty that you will be
guided to perform that work that you must do, in the best of all possible
ways, at the best of all possible times. The Phantom Material W orld
 
It is an established fact that our five senses perceive but the tiniest portion
of the almost infinite spectrum of vibrations that prevails in the universe,
that a million times more remains untold about each thing than can possibly
be perceived by sensual means. Whistles can be made which are
imperceptible to the human ear but are easily heard by certain animals. The
frequency of vibration we know as light is strictly bounded as to the range
that has an ef fect on the human eye, but nevertheless we know there are
variations in what people can see — some are colorblind, others
nearsighted, others farsighted; some have an artist’ s vision, to others
materializations appear , as to Bernadette at Lourdes. In short, materialistswho pride themselves on accepting nothing but the evidence of their senses
are accepting the sketchiest of evidence; they actually pride themselves on
their blindness, accepting things as facts on the basis of knowing a mere
one-billionth of their total qualities. They would not dream of entering a
business deal with such meager knowledge but accept the world and others
and themselves on such evidence and rear like reluctant stallions when it is
suggested to them that they live among phantoms. Focusing attention on the ego and the evidence of the senses is the veil that
hides the Secret Self. The senses themselves are not the veil, only the
impression they give that they are conveying to the observer the total aspect
of things. Nor is ego inherently a veil, only the impression that it gives
through completely dominating the consciousness that it is the actual self of
the person. Hung up in the sensual world and totally immersed in the ego,
we have no chance to perceive the Secret Self. The clarion call sounds but
our ears are not attuned. W ith our tiny and incomplete knowledge, we keep
entering into things without perceiving their true nature and ultimate
destiny . Therefore our path through life is marked mainly by suf fering and
defeat, though occasionally the purposes of this ego will coincide with the
ends of the Divine, in which case we willingly fall victim to our own
duplicity , convinced that our little machinations have moved the world. The
end of our ego is certain still, for it is but flotsam adrift on a sur ging tide
and sooner or later destroys itself by pursuing its separate ends. Resignation and Aspiration
 
To let go of ego is the thing to be done. T o get outside of and free from the
grip of the senses is the only path to discovery of the Secret Self. Many
people are brought to their knees by life before they let go of self and
achieve equality through resignation. Many of the most brilliantly recorded
illuminations have happened in this manner . Out of the utmost defeat and
degradation of the human soul have arisen its most inspirational moments,
but it is doubtful if any human being would willingly choose such a path foran end that is vague to them in the first place. Mystics who have discovered
the Secret Self through mental and spiritual concentration report that even
they have experienced “a dark night of the soul” as the ego was
surrendered. Evelyn Underhill chronicled many such transfigurations, and
all were preceded by a period of deep spiritual and emotional depression,
such as Christ had in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is no easy thing to
surrender ego. It is a kind of death. But it must be done before life can be
enlar ged by the expanded consciousness that results from complete
possession of the individual by the Secret Self. The quality above all things
that is required is courage. Y ou must push of f; the jump must be taken. Lyrically , it is almost exactly as recorded by Dustin Smith, a free-fall
parachutist:
 
The first time you go into a free fall is the weirdest. Y ou have no idea what
is going to happen. Y ou are terrified on the first step. Then you look down,
like God. And the ultimate is going away from the plane. In this you’re free
and you’re purely responsible for yourself. There is a real moment of truth
when you reach for the cord. Y ou come down absolutely elated. Y ou’ve
done something that in one way seems ridiculous, but in another way makes
great sense. Now it is not recommended that any seeker after truth adopt parachuting as
a means to illumination, but there can be no doubt from Mr . Smith’ s
observations that pushing of f from the safety of an airplane into the
unknown dangers of the sky is almost exactly like the spiritual step of
pushing away from the ego and surrendering one’ s life to the unknown
guidance of the Secret Self. They both require courage; they both exemplify
a search. They both typify our aspiration to pierce the veils that blind us. The Country Beyond
 The end r esult of transfiguration, of illumination, is for the ego to be
properly subor dinated to the Divine, but befor e the Secr et Self can even
appear to the aspiring soul ther e must be a prior period of time in which the
edge of the importance of the ego is gradually whittled down until it no
longer occupies the whole consciousness, until ther e is r oom within the
awar eness for light to enter , for the Divine to be r evealed. Some people ar e
so immersed in the workings of the ego that they haven’ t the faintest idea
what subor dinating it to another principle means. T o them the ego is the
beginning and end, the sum of all existence, and accor ding to how they
gratify this surface self by power and position and victory they feel they
have achieved success in life. The truth is that the sur est way to ensur e
against success in life — the success of arriving at a grasp of the meaning
of existence — is to continually gratify the ego. What r esults then is a
blindness by limitation, for the ego, being small, cannot see beyond itself. Jesus, a gr eat mystic and a master of spiritual knowledge, pr onounced it to
be mor e difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a
camel to go thr ough the eye of a needle. This observation of his, of course,
is lar gely parable. It is not strictly rich men Jesus r eferr ed to, for some rich
men ar e most spiritual, but rather people who live to gratify the senses and
their own ingr own vanity; these ar e the ones to whom expanded
consciousness is unavailable. It is denied for no moral r eason, but a pur ely
scientific one. If one chooses to look thr ough a crack in the wall ther e is
revealed a partial world. If one goes thr ough the wall, the true aspect of the
country beyond is r evealed at last. Forsaking ego and uniting with the
Secret Self makes this view possible to the aspiring soul. Expanding Consciousness
 
Consciousness is the key to discovering the Secret Self. T o become aware
that consciousness is the same in all people is a big step on the road to
illumination. Once you have become struck by the enormity of this situation
you will never again be the same, for you will innately perceive that at workin the universe is not a multitude of aspiring and searching souls, but one
individual only , and you are it and it is all others, and so in a very real sense
you and your neighbor are one. Once the magnificent implications of this
fact have come home to you, you will see that the secret of ef fective living
is not the exerting of your individual will as you have always supposed it to
be, but rather in growing to know and understand events and objects so that
you can correctly perceive their true purpose and destiny . And you will not
do that by observing the surface facts as recorded by the ego-self, but only
by expanding your consciousness to the point where objects and events
become a part of you, as they surely are in actuality , for both you and they
are the Secret Self. To expand consciousness infinitely would be to grow into oneness with the
one force, the one power , the one mind that truly exists. Perhaps this goal in
this age and at this stage of evolution is impossible, but nevertheless we can
expand our present consciousness a thousandfold, if not to include the
universe, certainly to include our friends and neighbors and the events and
circumstances that surround us. By a process of identification we can come
to know other things and other people and outside events even as we know
ourselves, and possessed by this knowledge we can act in the midst of all
things in complete accord with their true nature and destiny , and so our
actions take on a kind of omnipotence, our works a kind of absolute
effectiveness, so that we appear to be molding and changing the world
about us when in truth we are only acting in conformity with its real but
unrevealed nature. Magic Alchemy
 
“It is not I, but a power greater than I” is the first acknowledgment we must
make to the Secret Self. Once this is done, we have by a kind of surrender
placed our fate where it should be, in the hands of something infinitely
more informed and more capable. T o forsake the ur gings and promptings of
the surface nature and ego is the first step, for as long as we are bound tothis inef fective and tiny microcosm we cannot be ef fective in our works or
serene in our spiritual development. W e must turn away from that which we
have always considered self and embrace that which we have always
considered other than self, and in that turning away and in that embracing
lies our salvation. “It is not I who doeth the works,” stated Jesus, “but the
Father that dwelleth within me.” And when his transfiguration was
complete: “I and the Father are one.”
The surface self will not surrender lightly . Its struggles and misguided
urgings will be constant. W ise and extremely enlightened is the person who
manages to control their ego at all times. T o be human is to be subject to
error , but to discover within the image of perfection and joy is to find a way
out of the morass of physical sensation in which we find ourselves
entrapped in life. Salvation for all of us is as near as ourselves, for there
dwells within each of us a hallowed light, a hidden self that can relieve our
sufferings and frustrations, no matter how painful or enduring. W e have
only to discover and embrace it, for it to become our true selves and to
work its magic in our lives.OceanofPDF .com 
3
 
The Greatest Magic of All
 
Mechanistic notions of life ar e all too pr evalent in society today . Most
people believe a thing is what it is because of being made out of, by , and
from other things, and most of us ar e intent on moving this thing by
hand, as if fancying ourselves chess players and life the board and the
pieces the things we ar e concerned with. All too soon we find we ar e
opposed by an inscrutable and ruthless opponent, and our end is
inevitable. W e have concerned ourselves with only the surface aspect of
the game, and such a viewpoint never can fathom life’ s nuances and
real significance. Immortal Hand and Eye
 
Material concepts of existence wind up depressingly sterile, for after the
complex machinery of the human body is reduced to its tiniest cell, still the
animating presence is not found; nothing is there but the yawning abyss of a
dead and unheeding universe to greet the material researcher . The form of a
thing suits its function, and its function suits its purpose, and inherent in
each is a complex and highly intelligent design, far surpassing anything yet
possible to the surface mind. It is not so much the form that we must be
concerned with, but the idea that lies behind form, the intelligent purpose
that gives that form perfect function. Tiger, tiger , burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? — WILLIAM BLAKE
 
Witness the pacing of the sleek and powerful tiger in the cages of a zoo and
you know at once that you are seeing a creature consummately designed for
a specific function, without a wasted motion, without a spare or useless
part. Examine the myriad geometrical designs of snowflakes and you
become immediately aware that behind creation lies a supreme
mathematical mind, a millionfold more comprehending than that of the
most erudite of scientists. The ordered spinning of the planets in space, the
arrangement of solar systems in the universe, the design of the atom, the
deep and inscrutable mystery of animation; surely we are blind if we fail to
recognize the working of a supreme intelligence, guiding, molding,
directing with purpose. Out of the infinite plastic creativeness of this
intelligence have all things sprung. It makes all, fashions everything from
itself. W e do not hold the fate of the universe in our hands; that fate is safe
and sure in the hands of our creator , and that creator has incarnated in us all
of its potentiality and power . The ends of evolution were assured long before humans arrived upon the
earthly scene; they were assured from the very beginning. That intelligence
of suf ficient scope to have within it the power to originate the concepts of
space and time and matter , to create the countless forms of life and animate
them with its own presence, surely would not, in any crisis, abdicate, give
over control to one of its partially developed and fractionally aware
creations. This, however , is the conclusion that some of our thinkers have
come to, those, at least, who believe that people control the universe andtheir own destiny , material people, surface people, ego-centered, partially
aware people. Steps among the Stars
 
There is a hidden cause of all things, hidden because it is not visible,
invisible because it takes no special form, fits no special description. It lies
eternally and omnisciently behind the consciousness of every living thing,
and it determines all fates, all consequences, all conflicts and resolutions. It
is not thwarted in a single aspect of its being or purpose; there are within it
no loose ends, no unresolved conflicts. It is universal mind, divine
intelligence, the Secret Self that animates every living thing. It is as lar ge as
infinity , there are no limits upon its capabilities or powers, and it resides
completely and entirely within you. Hidden though it be from your surface
mind, it is your own immortal self. This is the self whose steps are visible in the stars, in the infinitesimal and
complex design of the germinating seed, in the color and grandeur and
bustling ener gy of evolving life. It brings all forms into existence, crumbles
and dissipates them when the idea behind them has been expressed. It is the
sole being, the one mind, the solitary life, the only true presence, the one
real self in existence. Immortal, never born, never dying, the infinite sides
of its manifold nature are expressed on the stage of life, and each of its
creations contains within it all of the essence and power and intelligence of
the creator; each has within it the Secret Self. Life T aps Us on the Shoulder
 “What good is it,” you may ask, “to have a self that is so far beyond my
comprehension, that it isn’ t even the ‘I’ that I’ve always thought myself to
be?” There is a very great deal of good. If you focus yourself in the surface
mind, then the dimensions of life are forever hidden from you; you do not
know where you came from and you do not know where you are going; you
even wonder if one day you might suddenly cease to be. Y ou cannot fathom
the billions of miles of distance to the nearest star or the billions of years
since the earth first swung into orbit around the sun. Y ou cannot see the
mind of another person, understand what animates a living being,
comprehend the purpose of life. All is mystery , all dwarfs the little ego,
which literally cannot see beyond its own nose and grasps even that but
vaguely . Unless we are as uncomprehending as cows in the field, we cannot help but
be sick when we live focused in the ego; the world is just too big. Fear and
futility and guilt and frustration are our daily lot when we are small and
inadequate and know that we are small and inadequate. W e may be mice
and roar like lions, but we will soon know that we are mice if we live
absorbed in the ego. Life taps each of us on the shoulder . We either listen or
get knocked down. No individual reigns supreme; we are all part and parcel
of one mind, one self, one supreme intelligence; and inasmuch as we
understand this transforming fact that intelligence enters completely into us
and possesses us and uses us for its work in the world, we perform to the
zenith of our human capabilities. Tunnel V ision
 
Implicit in the universe is first cause, original impetus, and this first cause is
a primal intelligence from which all things have sprung. It is involved in
expressing itself, and the result is the infinite variety and design of life, the
endless series of evolving forms that inhabit the world. Each form is not a
separate creation of the original intelligence, but rather is an expression of
it, so that there dwells in each the original intelligence itself, masqueradingas the form and limited to that extent, but in essence remaining infinite and
eternal and omniscient. Y ou are not the limited surface self and ego that you
have always fancied yourself to be, but you are that very primal intelligence
that has manifested all the forms of the universe. Reflection on the nature of intelligence and consciousness reveals why this
is so. When our attention is focused upon a certain thing, inasmuch as our
absorption is complete, we become the thing that has our attention. This
“tunnel vision” quality of consciousness is responsible for the remarkable
phenomena of hypnosis. Where hypnosis is deep and consciousness may be
directed toward a single object, subject becomes object and we do not know
ourselves in any other way . If told that we are a duck, we quack and waddle. If told that we are a bear , we growl. If told that we are a politician, we
deliver orations. W e know ourselves only as a duck when a duck, only as a
bear when a bear , only as a politician when a politician. Surely universal
intelligence itself must be so absorbed in each of its manifestations,
becoming the thing it has become with complete amnesia for its true state
and all other manifestations of its nature. This is why we do not know what
we truly are and become the thing that our consciousness is focused upon. Conceptual Universe
 
It would seem that universal mind or primal intelligence has the ability to
become anything it would become, or rather , that its inherent nature is to
become anything that takes root within it as idea, as thought. The existence
of this universal mind must be purely mental. Chief and perhaps solely its
activity is thought. It is thinking, and each of its thoughts is manifested as a
form in the material world. Each thought contains within it all of the
intelligence of the thinker , so that a thought is a thing capable of developing
other thoughts. Thus, if a person is a thought in the mind of an eternal
thinker , then all of the intelligence of that eternal thinker is latent in the
person, and thus the seed of liberation from a directed and focused
consciousness is implicit in each of us. W e can, in ef fect, become anything,do anything, since behind our focused awareness lies a universal and
omniscient mind. The seed of all possibilities lies within us. Short arm needs man to reach to Heaven
So ready is Heaven to stoop to him. — FRANCIS THOMPSON
 
The metaphysical aspects of the relationship of universal mind with your
own surface mind must be grasped in some manner before it is possible to
free yourself from bondage to sensual reaction and slavery to circumstance. It is perfectly all right to admonish a suf ferer from circumstance to think
positively , but all too often they have not the resources within them to
accomplish this, any more than they are able to take arms against the
physical events that attack them. It takes a wealth of spiritual resource to
produce the courage necessary to free the soul from bondage to the surface
self. And it takes a heap of courage to sustain one on that leap into the void
of absolute freedom that comes with complete reliance on the Secret Self. Generally speaking, motives of monetary gain or personal ascendancy are
simply not suf ficient to produce the drive necessary to promote unity
between the Secret Self and the surface nature. When we desire things
through selfish motives we narrow our perceptual horizons to where it is
impossible for us to glimpse the vast and powerful being that dwells within
us. W e can be beaten into complete submission, into abject humility , but
such cessation of the ur gings of the ego is all too often temporary , and when
the equilibrium of our lives has been restored, then the ego gathers new
strength, reconsiders its abdication, once again takes over the life to the
sorrow of the person within. The only true and lasting conversion to unity
with the Secret Self comes from possessing the facts of the mental and
spiritual world we inhabit, so that all mind is seen one mind, all spirit one
spirit, all persons one person, and such perception is not accepted on faith
or belief but from a clear perception of the facts as they exist, onindisputable and irrevocable proof. Only mental understanding through
increased awareness can accomplish this. The Eternal Thinker
 
Life for each of us is exactly as we construe it to be, and this is the mental
law under which we live. Similarly , all notions of theology and metaphysics
are, for each of us, exactly as we construe them to be, for the ideas that take
root in our consciousness determine the scope and limitation of our
consciousness. In short, God is as we fancy Him to be, and we have only to
change our notion of Him in order to change Him. He is idea only because
He is mind, and that idea which is the lar gest, the most perfect, most
workable, clearest, is therefore the nearest approximation of the Godhead. Our illness is caused by the little way we are able to see, and only as we
enlar ge our vision, push back our horizons, are we cured. The metaphysic upon which this book is based is this: There is an eternal
thinker eternally thinking, and each thought the thinker thinks appears to be
separate from the thinker , but it is not; it represents the thinker only , but not
entirely , and insofar as the thought exists at all it is the thinker , though not
completely . The thinker is God, the thought is the person, and God has
absorbed Himself in the thought but is not bound by this absorption, and
may liberate Himself at any time by expanding his awareness. As long as
we are absorbed in the ego, we are absorbed in the thought and remain the
thought, are bound by the idea that actuated us in the first place, but when
we lay aside our absorption in the ego, then our entrancement has begun to
shatter , and we are beginning to recognize ourselves as God. As soon as we
make any approximation of this psychic position whatever , we have arrived
at a place where we can change the idea that actuated our ego in the first
place, where we can make ourselves into entirely dif ferent people simply by
being able to accept an entirely new and dif ferent idea about ourselves.We must penetrate the apparent duality of life before we are able to clearly
understand our oneness with the Secret Self. There are not many dif ferent
natures and beings at work in the world; only one. All are dif ferent aspects
of this one being. In each is enclosed that amount of consciousness that
determines the form of the thing, but the consciousness enclosed is still the
consciousness of the Secret Self, limited and apparently separated because
it is absorbed in the thing it has become. And this absorption, this
limitation, is what we know as surface self, as ego, and it is the veil that
separates us from knowledge of our vaster nature and true being. T o get rid
of ego then is the thing to be done. T o subordinate it to the Secret Self, to
place it in proper psychic position to its master and director , and above all
to recognize it as primarily illusion, a changing thing, a temporary cloud
that stands between us and pure and complete unity with the Divine, these
are the steps novitiates must take before their works in the world are
marked by power and ef fectiveness. Conditioning Consciousness
 
All lack, limitation, and malfunction that touches our lives is carried in our
minds, is literally created there because it is a product of our limited and
ego-centered consciousness. W e stumble because we do not see, and this
condition of not-seeing places the obstacle in our path. The English utopian
philosopher Edward Carpenter stated, “It should be as easy to expel an
obnoxious thought out of your mind as to shake a stone out of your shoe,”
but, alas, it is not so. The obnoxious thought is not a thing of itself, but
rather the lack of a thing. Negative conditions are imperfect perceptions. It
is when we are not able to perceive that we falter . You simply cannot turn
your mind upside down and shake out something that is not there in the first
place. The reason the obnoxious thought exists is because the consciousness
is too small and simply does not see. The remedy , rather than trying to cast
out something that is not truly there, is to expand consciousness until it can
be seen that lack and limitation and malfunction only exist by virtue of
imperfect mental perception. This is why there is such a great deal of failureon the part of persons who try to create positive conditions in their lives by
thinking positively . Usually such positive thoughts center around money ,
health, love, security , inner peace.
_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:

        W e do not even dwell alone in our own
bodies, which ar e for the most part a battlegr ound for opposing sides of
our natur e; and as one assumes command, then another, we pr esent the
constantly changing colors of a chameleon. Our Many Selves
 
When engaged in concentrated ef fort, we often talk to ourselves. One part
of us sits in judgment on the other, so that we give vent to little
exclamations of exasperation such as, “Y ou can do better than that, Henry,
old boy,” or, “Don’ t be such a bonehead, you can get it. ” In this apparent
division of the self, one half assumes a nature that appears above reproach
while the other apparently has the personality of a mischievous, recalcitrant
child. If you ask Henry which of the two he is, he answers that he is Henry. If you ask him who is O r -7 talking to Henry, he achieves a look of utter
blankness, manages to answer at last that he’ s only talking to himself. Well, it isn’ t just a way that Henry has; it’ s a way that all of us have. W e
house within us not one nature, but many; not one self, but a whole myriad
of selves superimposed upon each other like endless reflections in opposing
mirrors; and not one of these selves is our true self, not even all taken
together, but another truer being hidden within, timeless and eternal and
unchanging. The conflicts and oppositions of the many sides of our surface nature are
directly responsible for the prevalence of that psychological disorder called
schizophrenia. Schizophrenics are disoriented with the world and
themselves through intense inner conflicts waged by several of their
different natures. In extreme cases, one, then the other, takes over, so that
they are possessed of several distinct personalities, each as dif ferent from
the other as night from day. A number of clinical cases of this nature have
been studied extensively; one has even been made into a bestselling book,
so that by and lar ge people are finally becoming aware of the wavering,
mystical being each of us really is. Psychologically sound people are those who take char ge of their own
personalities, refuse to allow themselves to be influenced by the wind,
impose a discipline upon themselves predicated upon the goals they wish to
achieve. Y et despite this “taking char ge,” despite the discipline imposed
upon the surface nature and inner parts of the psyche, the psychologically
sound person must remain subservient to an inner hidden part of their being,
that indestructible and bright core within that sustains them and gives them
life. If they do not, then a sickness of all their parts aggrandizes their ego,
disassociates them from reality, causes them to assume the psychologically
functional disorder known as paranoia. Their blown-up ego then has shut
them of f from the supporting and sustaining Secret Self, and they are
heading directly for destruction. Most of the dictators of our modern
political systems have been of this type, carrying their countries and
themselves to destruction in a blind and headlong rush. Infinity in the Finite 
It becomes obvious, once we give it close consideration, that we not only
are at war with nature, but actually are at war with ourselves. W e are such
battlegrounds within that often we cannot contain our turmoil, and our
entire psyche becomes permeated with a sickness that makes it of little use
to the world or ourselves. The human being is more than a physical body,
and the misty shape of each human’ s invisible aura is something that cannot
be contained within boundaries or assigned categories or weighed or
measured or counted. All that we are and can hope to be is mental, is the
essence of some gigantic intelligence in the lap of which we nestle and from
which we are fed and nurtured as if from subterranean springs. This
gigantic intelligence is the Secret Self of the universe; it is also,
paradoxically enough, the Secret Self of each of us. No amount of rhetoric prevails against disbelief; no ar gument dissuades the
person of faith. Still, the enigma is there. How is it possible that something
infinite in size and scope, like a universal mind, can be housed within the
tiny, finite body of an individual. T o be infinite is to be one. More than one
of anything infinite automatically is not infinite, for anything infinite
occupies all the space there is and therefore does not leave room for
anything else. Thus anything infinite is exactly the same as anything within
it, for all of anything infinite has to be at each particular place at each
particular time. Now this may be a pretty hard dose to swallow, but it is
perhaps as scientifically sound as the quantum theory of physics, and what
it essentially means is this: if there is intelligence behind life, and there is
every reason to believe there must be, then all of that intelligence is innate
in each creation of that intelligence. Thus universal mind or the Secret Self
is complete and entire within each of us. W e have only to discover it for its
power and perfection to be ours. But neither the sear ch nor the finding is easy. We are so steeped in our
egotism, so encysted within our myriad surface selves, that vision to
penetrate the illusion is har d to acquir e, is developed only by ar duous
mental effort and spiritual discipline. Underlying all the turmoil, supporting
the contest between the surface selves, giving each life dir ection and
purpose, is the gar den fr om which springs personality, the Secr et Self, aplace of calm and certitude within each of us. Ther e is no struggle in the
Secret Self. It knows. Its mer e act of per ception is an act of cr eation, for
seeing pr ecedes being in this most mental of all places wher e thought and
idea ar e always prior to physical fact. Behind the W all
 
Carl Jung has stated that most people confuse “self-knowledge” with
knowledge of their conscious ego personalities, so that anyone with any ego
at all takes it for granted that they know themself. Actually, they know only
the ego and its contents and have little if any knowledge of the vast and
shadowy ar eas of the subconscious fr om whence all the impulsions and
compulsions that form their active life spring. No one is fr ee who feels that
their motivations originate in their conscious ego personality. They ar e
moved about in life like puppets by the subconscious, and all their elaborate
reasonings and painful arrivals at conscious per ceptions ar e made after the
fact of their commitment to certain ideas and actions, never befor e. Between the surface self and the Secr et Self lies an opaque wall,
impenetrable to the gaze of the ego and yielding its secr ets only to one who
has expanded their consciousness beyond the limits of their conscious mind. Materialists who pride themselves on never accepting anything but a
proven physical fact have mer ely accepted blindness as a condition of their
being, and what they think is fr eedom is simply servitude of the highest
degree. T urning one’ s back on the subconscious does not obliterate it. The
individual is not sprung into being by an effort of self, but comes pr eformed
by something other than the ego that fr onts their consciousness during life. The question is, who is the true r esident within — the ego that gr ows fr om
experience, or the life for ce that animates fr om the beginning. Reflection
leads us inescapably to the conclusion that the true person within is the
hidden dweller in all things, that the ego is only a mask donned by this
dweller for a moment in some inscrutable play being acted out for its secr et
delight. The constant search of the human psyche, as long as it confines itself to the
ego and the surface nature, must continue to be fruitless, for it concerns
itself with a wraith. T o truly know humanity — our actual nature, origin,
purpose, destiny — the deeper regions of consciousness must be probed. These are all subconscious, making up the vast, jumbled, tremendously
powerful, even frightening mental area below consciousness. Who knows
what things are possible to this area of our being. Sigmund Freud, having
exposed its awesome powers, is reported once to have confessed that he
created the dogma of his sexual theory of human behavior because some
powerful bulwark of reason was needed against the black flood of occultism
that might spring from the subconscious. Y et it is just that occultism, just
that black flood that most needs to be studied, for the Secret Self lies there. The Unutter ed Part of Life
 
The Ouija board and divining rod are not just parlor games or the tools of
crackpots but are the best of illustrations that within us there is a being
enormously dif ferent from our surface selves and which has powers of
perception and knowledge vastly greater than our conscious minds. A man
with a forked hazel stick can find water beneath the surface of the ground,
and this remarkable feat is true not because there is any af finity between the
water and the hazel stick, but because there exists in the subconscious of the
man a means of perceiving that water underlies a particular piece of ground. The stick turns downward and points out the water because of unconscious
muscular reactions on the part of the man, but he will swear it does so of its
own volition; and to the degree that the turning down is originated by the
Secret Self and not by his surface self, his claim is true. In any case, the
stick turns down, the well is dug, and water is there. The man couldn’ t have
seen the water, the stick couldn’ t have known it was there. Some other
thing, some invisible force was at work. That thing, that force, is the Secret
Self. Thomas Carlyle wrote, “The uttered part of a man’ s life, let us always
repeat, bears to the unuttered, unconscious part a small unknown
proportion. He himself never knows it, much less do others. ” W e wend our
unheeding oblivious ways through life, captives of forces we neither
understand nor are aware exist, and we labor under the delusion that we are
free. This blindness has not been forced upon us because of our relationship
to life, nor is it necessary in order to preserve our sanity or individuality as
some casuists would have us believe. It is simply an inevitable step in the
evolution of mind out of matter, and even now is being transcended by
those individuals suf ficiently evolved to correctly perceive the Secret Self
and its existence within. Mind seeks to know; its goal is a constantly
increasing awareness. Expanding consciousness is apparent wherever we
look, almost as if a mental explosion had taken place in the heart of the
universe and now speeds outward in all directions, encompassing
everything. Liberation fr om Bondage
 
The surface mind is not the true mind, is but the barest fractional part of the
true mind, and we never know our power and ef fectuality until we turn
away from this troublesome false self and originate thought and action on
the deeper planes of our being. Then we become as a power doubled upon
itself, having “hitched a ride” on illimitable ener gy. Below the surface self
and the conscious mind, sustaining and supporting both but remaining
infinitely greater than either, is universal subconscious mind, the vast mind
that springs into being all living things, that underlies life like a great and
infinite ocean of intelligence and ener gy. This subconscious mind is not just
a hodgepodge reservoir of instincts, ur ges, and long-for gotten memories
individual to each person, nor a kind of cell memory of pain and pleasure,
as some psychologists would have us believe, but encompasses infinitely
more, the whole scope of creation, of space and time and knowledge and
purpose. And all of this mind is in every person, and no one has a lar gershare of it than others, and all of it is available to each of us this very
moment; it is actually the sustaining self of every one of us. Frustration and suf fering are the human lot in this stage of evolution
because we have separated ourselves from the root source of our power. This has been done as consciousness has evolved into self-consciousness,
for the particular stage of self-consciousness at which we have arrived is
embryonic; it is only self-consciousness in the narrowest sense of the word. It delimits itself by the boundaries of the physical senses and therefore
makes of itself a tiny speck in an infinitely lar ge and living universe. It is
small wonder that we are blinded to the beginnings and ends of life, so tiny
is our newly acquired sense of being. Y et even now it reaches groping and
hopeful hands toward an alliance with its greater self, and it is this alliance
that will finally liberate it from bondage to the flesh, from the limitations of
space and time and matter. The Other Person in Y ou
 
All this may sound pretty obscure, even occult, and since the average
person today is so grounded and steeped in materialism, there may be those
of you who balk at this point and say, “Prove it. Show me evidence of
Universal Subconscious Mind. ” There is evidence aplenty. Various hypnotic techniques are continually exposing layers of the
subconscious that indicate that they are not the personal property of the
person under hypnosis. For example, someone may be hypnotized and
recall intimate details of a life not their own, so that the unwary researcher
will be led to believe that they are recalling a life lived previously. Such
evidence is continually of fered in support of the reincarnation thesis, but no
such actual proof ever has been forthcoming. People under hypnosis have
spoken languages they neither consciously understood nor ever had heard,
described in detail places and times where they had never been and could
not have conscious knowledge of, performed all manner of clairvoyant featsthat indicate the amazing power and scope of the subconscious; and the
indisputable evidence is of a single entity only, existing in all persons but
the individual property of none. Someone else lives in your body other than the surface mind which you
have long regarded as yourself — a bigger, finer, more dynamic, more
gifted, and powerful person than you ever have imagined yourself to be —
but it is your true self nevertheless, the real you. Its action and power are
behind every thought you have and move you make, and if your conscious
mind is opposed to this real self, then you are torn on the rack of indecision
and opposition and meet nothing but frustration and disappointment
wherever you turn. But once your conscious mind and surface self are lent
as tools to this subconscious self, then of a sudden you are a whole and
glorious thing, and you find yourself proceeding along life’ s pathways with
surety and power. Your Senior Partner
 
To fully uncover the Secret Self is no doubt the final goal of evolution. When the inhabiting spirit has fully emer ged from matter, then the Godhead
will be revealed at last with all its conscious power and infinite realization. Those who join this irresistible tide are swept onward by unsuspected
energies to accomplish feats far beyond their poor mortal selves. They have
hitched a ride on cosmic power, and their ener gies and inspirations spill
over the boundaries of their surface selves and touch all those with whom
they associate. They become leaders, doers, creators, and achieve a kind of
omnipotence because they are led in performance by an infallible and
irresistible force. You can talk to the Secret Self. Y ou can go into conference with it much as
you might consult an all-wise and benevolent parent or the president of the
business that employs you. Once you have the hang of it and come to fully
realize beyond any shadow of doubt its potentiality and possibility, thendaily conference will be as natural and fitting to your mode of living as the
act of breathing. This is “the Father that dwells within you,” spoken of by
Jesus. This is the senior side of your dual personality, the detached one that
judges the action and is untouched by it. This is the subconscious mind
referred to by psychologists, the mind that never sleeps, thinks when all is
still, works with surety and calmness in the midst of the greatest turmoil. This is the talisman that delivers you the “hunch,” that brings your fortune;
the idea for your book, painting, or composition; an inner vision; a new path
to tread. This is the deep center of your being to which you retreat in
meditation and prayer, where joy, serenity, and bliss reign because all is
known and truly understood. Haven’ t you ever contacted it. Set that right at once. As soon as you know
the Secret Self is there, your close relationship to it is assured, for who
would turn their back on the source of their redemption from pain and
suffering and frustration. An Experiment
 
Take a simple finger ring. T ie it to a thin thread about twelve inches long. Hold the loose end of the thread between your thumb and forefinger. Let the
ring dangle. Now tell the Secret Self that you are going to ask it some
questions, that if the ring moves in a small circle you will understand the
answer to be “yes,” that if it sways back and forth in a linear path you will
understand the answer to be “no. ” Ask the question aloud; hold the ring and
wait. Don’ t try to stop it from moving, and make no attempt to start it
moving. It will move. At first, the movement will be erratic, but soon it will
settle into a back and forth or circular motion. Eventually, your questions
will be answered instantaneously. Then you will have made a direct contact
with the Secret Self, and you will realize with comprehending awe that
someone infinitely aware dwells within you. There is no limit to the power of the Secret Self. Y our whole ef fort from the
moment of your realization of its existence should be to become acquainted
with it, to explore its infinite facets and discover the keys that unlock its
powers. Once you begin to guide your life in accordance with its
perceptions and motivations you will begin to take on an infallibility in
works that bodes success in every undertaking, every relationship. Y ou will
find that you are accompanied always by a feeling of inner joy and ener gy
and well-being where before you were always gnawed at by vague anxieties
and fears and feelings of lethar gy and fatigue. The color of the sky will
change; the world will take on a new and meaningful and exciting aspect. You will have placed yourself in tune with the guiding and motivating force
of the universe, and it will buoy your spirits heavenward. No task will
appear too great, no obstacle insurmountable. Supporter of the W orlds
 
Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, “Every man takes the limits of his own field of
vision for the limits of the world. ” And it is this blinding quality of the
surface psyche, that it cannot see beyond the limits it imposes upon itself,
that gives inherent characteristics of weakness and incapability to every
mortal. Even so, the degree is markedly dif ferent in the limitations we
impose upon ourselves. Some of us build towers to the sky, challenge
nature in her most inaccessible places, make our whole lives a constant
attack on mental and physical barriers. Others accept all the limitations they
encounter, live in fear of self-manufactured ogres, cannot challenge,
expand, or grow because they are slaves of the tiny surface self and have
not glimpsed or understood the giant within them. There is hope for those
who aspire; their place among the gods is assured. But those who hang back
and never dare and never take action are withering on the tree of life, and
all their wishes will not change anything as long as those wishes are not
strong enough to prompt them to attack their fear -created walls. Once you have discovered the Secret Self within, then it becomes a gradual
process of turning over your work, your goals and aspirations, to it. Y ou
cannot build a perfect life on the imperfect foundation of the surface self. It
will not support even the flimsiest edifice, will crumble under the slightest
pressure. All must be built on the Secret Self, which already supports the
worlds and the universes and will support your life, be you savant or saint,
and without the slightest tremor. Of all the causes that conspire to blind
Man’ s erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules. Is pride, the never -failing vice of fools. — ALEXANDER POPE
 
Facing Fear
 
It is vanity — or pride, if you will — which is the true enemy of the Secret
Self. For with consciousness centered in the surface self, with the vanity
that self-centeredness brings, an opaque veil is drawn over all spiritual
perception, and we live isolated from the wellsprings of our being. W e may
struggle through life many years in this manner, attacking our problems and
pursuing our goals with the persistent ener gy of an enterprising fly, but
eventually we must be brought up short by the realization that we simply
are inef fectual and we had best find a new blueprint of thought and action
or give up the ghost altogether. One ant alone does not topple a rubber tree
plant. Only the concerted ef fort and teamwork of thousands of ants make
this feat possible; and the ener gy and ef fort of one human being is nothing
by itself but is everything when it proceeds from the source of all ener gy,for then it is attuned to the tides and forces of the cosmos, becomes in a
manner an irresistible force, a kind of infallible action. Success stories often ar e fictions concocted by the human desir e to achieve
supremacy over cir cumstance. Most people fit into a kind of equation. They
react a certain way when confr onted with certain cir cumstances, and
therefore must act a certain way always when confr onted with those same
circumstances. For example, suppose we ar e afraid of gr oups of people
when we ar e unacquainted with them and expected to cir culate amongst
them and communicate. If early in life we give in to this fear and avoid new
groups, such behavior becomes a habit and one that we eventually find
impossible to br eak. Ther efore, all thr ough our lives, when confr onted with
a strange social situation, we will avoid it thr ough one pr etense or another,
simply because we have built up a habit of acceding to fear. We are
absolutely pr edictable in each cir cumstance of this type, and we ar e
predictable because we ar e not fr ee, because we ar e slaves to our fears. W e
become automatons led ar ound by the nose, a victim of cir cumstances
because we have not master ed our feelings. W e tend to r egard circumstance
itself as the evil, saying, “People in gr oups ar e uninter esting. They bor e
me. ” People don’ t bor e us at all; they scar e hell out of us; so much so that
we avoid them at all costs, leave a lar ge blank in a portion of our psyche,
and ar e completely frustrated in this ar ea of our gr owth. And it is our own
fault. W e simply cannot bring ourselves to muster the courage necessary to
face our fear. Over coming W eakness
 
“You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometime fight it out or
perish; and if that be so, why not now and where you stand. ” Fittingly
enough, these lines were penned by a writer bedfast through illness, but he
turned that illness into a great victory, eventually recovering his health and
giving the world masterpieces of literature. His name — Robert Louis
Stevenson. We must not be soft with ourselves no matter what our goals or positions. All things fare best when they are constantly tested by opposition. The
sturdiest grass is that which must grow through concrete. The coddled lawn
burns clean away at first exposure to sun or wind. If we have an aching
muscle we must learn to exercise it, not to rest it, and we will find the
muscle soon healed. If our psyche is closing us in, cutting us of f from life
and growth and expansion, then we must learn to test and use and expand
that psyche. If we do not, the psyche will atrophy, cut of f completely all
normal ties with life. Still, to be human is to be weak, is to be subject to sin
and suf fering and error, and as long as we live we never truly overcome any
of these; but as long as we live we must try, for we truly live only when we
try. What we finally have to learn is that we cannot expect an ultimate or
even a satisfying victory over our infirmities when we meet them one by
one, but only when we have found a way of assembling all on the same
field of battle for one final showdown. What results then must be a
complete step forward in our evolution as human beings, for no one is ever
defeated who gathers courage to face their assembled weaknesses. “How is this possible. ” someone may ask. “How does one gather all their
weaknesses in one spot and overcome them. ” It is not simple or even
apparent. In isolated areas, yes. If you have a tendency to be afraid of new
situations, then you can build up confidence about them by forcing yourself
to enter into them. Sooner or later you are bound to meet each new situation
calmly, if not eagerly, for the general condition of newness has become
familiar. This exercise of willpower, however, while it will tend to give you
courage in every aspect of your life simply because you have met fear in
one area and defeated it, nevertheless will not overcome a tendency to be
lazy, for example, or untruthful, or disloyal, or even to eat too much. As a
matter of fact, it can readily be seen that this helter -skelter treatment of the
unwhole psyche is much like a person trying to plug a series of leaks in a
dike with their fingers. Eventually all ten fingers will be occupied, and still
the new leaks come. The Universal Author 
What is needed is a new approach to the psyche, one that treats it as a single
thing and not as a group of aberrations or incomplete perceptions, and the
approach which gives 100 percent cures in 100 percent of cases is one in
which the individual comes to know and be aware of his Secret Self. Each of us faces life with an undeveloped psyche. It is undeveloped because
it is less than whole, because it is only a partial manifestation of something
greater than itself. Only insofar as it approaches awareness of this greater
self does it approximate wholeness or self-suf ficiency. That sense of self
which we use in our daily rounds of ef fort is useful only insofar as it is
larger than the task we undertake. It is perfectly up to peeling potatoes, for
instance, but when something lar ge is asked of it, then it may cower in the
corner. Bridges are built by the Secret Self and not by the surface ego. Towers and highways and planes and automobiles and television are
wrought by the Secret Self. All books are written by the same author, all
pictures painted by the same artist, all music written by the same composer. The ego of the individual is simply not up to such tasks, and as long as we
live entrapped in bondage to our surface self, then our ef forts can only be
crowned by such puny results as fit our ego. Only when we tear ourselves
away, divorce ourselves from vanity and conceit and ego and surface self,
can we at last perceive the true dimensions of the being that dwells within
us. Then we know our true self, then we turn our life over to it. Then our
efforts take on a grandeur and purpose that are bound to achieve noble and
vigorous ends, for the power that engrosses us proceeds from outside us and
carries us along on its sur ging tides and is greater than us in every way. Any man or woman whose life is aimed at creative ef fort is bound to
discover the Secret Self sooner or later. No one can closet themself in the
nebulous realm of the mental and spiritual without early coming to know
that there dwells within them a mental being of enormous dimension and
power, contact with which has the power to ennoble and illumine each
moment. The author seeks his muse with all his heart. The painter pauses
with raised brush, awaiting inspiration. W e are moved from within toward
each aspiration, provided it is loftier than the limitations of the surface self;
and so the world belongs to those who aspire, who dare, who try, for allaspiration is only ef fort against the prison of the surface self, and all such
effort is the alchemy by which the common clay of our little egos is
transmuted into something transcendental and precious. An Artist Finds His T alent
 
A number of years ago there lived in a poor section of a lar ge city a man
who had given up the years of his youth to perfect his art. He lived
meagerly on what few pennies he could earn making charcoal sketches in
waterfront bars, and he spent every moment he could spare in front of his
easel. He painted ships, every conceivable type and kind, at sea, becalmed
and in storm, in port, loading and unloading, ships under sail, ships under
steam, sleek yachts, wallowing freighters, men-o’-war. He loved the sea and
he loved to paint, and by the amount of time he had spent at each he should
have mastered his art very well, but he hadn’ t. Somehow it escaped him. His paintings were not amateurish: they exhibited the hand of an artisan; yet
they always seemed clichés, as if they were saying something that had been
said a thousand times before. People would look at them and even comment
that they had seen them before. They hadn’ t, of course. The paintings just
contrived to look like others that had been done. The painter realized this fact only too well. His work was intensely
dissatisfying to him. He often would relate that when he first was struck
with an idea for a new subject he would be deeply elated and would set to
work with a vengeance. Then, as the work progressed under his hand, he
gradually would come to see that it was not a thing of inspiration at all, but
wooden, pat, said before, a reproduction, and even before the work was
finished he would be gripped by a depression so intense that he scarcely
could finish. Still, he drove himself unremittingly. He felt a talent was
within him, and he was determined to get it out. Once, in a rage at himself,
he burned all the paintings in his studio, nearly setting fire to the building. Another time he was so furious at his hand for its clumsiness that he badly
lacerated his fingers, intent on cutting them of f. All this, of course, wouldindicate that our friend was not psychologically stable, but perhaps it was
simply that his provocation was great, so enormous was the creative ur ge
that constantly goaded him. Like most of the great lessons that life teaches, his enlightenment came
dear. When war broke out he had just finished a period of deep
dissatisfaction with his painting. Disgustedly, he decided to turn his back on
it forever. He shipped out as a merchant seaman aboard a freighter bound
for Murmansk. The convoy was attacked by German planes and submarines
as it skirted the Norwegian coast. Our painter ’s ship was sunk, and he
wound up in a lifeboat on the frigid and stormy Arctic Ocean. For days and
nights they drifted, fighting the freezing cold, trying to stay alive. At one
juncture the skies cleared long enough for them to be sighted by German
planes, and they were bombed and strafed. Five men were killed, three
others seriously wounded, dying that night. A day later, two more died from
exposure. Finally there were left in the boat only the painter and the ship’ s
purser, an elderly and apparently frail man who surprisingly still survived. “It’s no use,” said the painter at length. “There is no hope for us, and we
might as well slip over the side right now and be done with it. ”
“That’ s not for us to decide,” said the purser. “Who then. ” asked the painter. The purser sat calmly, and his eyes were kind. “Do we decide to be born. ”
he asked. “Do we decide our nationality, our race, our heritage. Someone or
something else does, I think. Get yourself quiet and listen. Perhaps you will
hear a voice speak within you. Then you will learn whether you are to live
or die. ”
The end seemed near. Surely it was useless to struggle further. For the first
time in his life the painter was able to give over direction of his destiny to
something other than his own ego. The bitter cold of approaching night
descended on them. Just before dusk a British seaplane swooped out of the
fog with a roar, saw them, landed on the sea, took them aboard. They were
in a London hospital that night. After some weeks of convalescence, our painter once again tried his hand at
his easel. What emer ged from the canvas startled him. It was as if a hand
other than his own guided the brush, chose the colors, as though a mind
other than his own envisaged the scene. V iewing the complete painting he
felt a sur ge of joy. This was the talent he had fought to bring forth, and now
it was flowing. In rapid succession he completed six paintings, packed them
off to a London art dealer, where they were received with open arms. They
were an instantaneous success, launching him on a long and remarkable
career. Years later he was asked about his early period of struggle and how his
talent happened to mature. “It didn’ t mature,” he answered. “It was there all the time. I just never could
bring it out because I thought it belonged to me. As soon as I was able to
see that it belonged to a being greater than I, it emer ged of its own accord
and used me, where before I had been trying vainly to use it. ”
Mystical, yes, a kind of cosmic perception by the artist of his muse, but a
far greater secret is hidden here. Our painter stumbled upon the
psychological relationship of ego to Secret Self that brooks no failure, that
inevitably leads to success, for it is a relationship in which all thought and
action proceed out of a universal intelligence and omnipotent power that
makes each work absolutely ef fective. Fall fr om Grace
 
Our consciousness is anchored falsely in our surface selves, and it is this
delusion that is our fall from grace, for by it we do not know who we truly
are and fancy ourselves as tiny isolated selves in a vast and overwhelming
universe. The gradual opening and unfolding of consciousness to that point
where the vistas within our psyche are revealed is the goal of evolution
itself, as life and intelligence and being manifest out of matter, and
eventually control and dominate matter. As long as we remain chained tothe illusion of the surface self we are but puppets of sensation, reacting this
way or that to every situation that confronts us, little more than absolutely
predictive ciphers in an equation aimed at producing the free, thinking,
omnipotent human. Y et this condition of freedom and omnipotence needs
only perception, for without doubt the mere act of perceiving the Secret Self
is akin to becoming one with the Secret Self. How then shall we see. How
shall our eyes be opened. Perhaps the most important step in discerning the Secret Self is
disillusionment with the ef fectiveness of the surface self, for how is it
possible to see when we still rejoice in our blindness. So it is that spiritual
awareness, psychic enlightenment, seldom comes to one in youth, for youth
is preoccupied with the senses, pursues all manner of sensual inamorata,
and is for the most part completely oblivious of the prison which the senses
have erected. Passing years bring the disappointments, the frustrations and
inadequacies that cause the seeking soul to cast about within psychic realms
for a new foundation on which to erect a more reliable and ef fective sense
of self. When this comes, eventual enlightenment is assured, for no one
seeks but they find, knocks but the door is opened. The mere act of turning
away from the senses and the surface self seems suf ficient. The veil is
removed, the blinder disintegrated, and an event in psychic life that was
brought about by suf fering and frustration and disillusionment turns out to
be the greatest of blessings in disguise. A new world is revealed. The death
of the surface self actually turns out to be a new birth. Resignation of the
senses from control of the person turns out to be a seizing of the reins of the
life by a new and dominant and ef fective force. When the inner eye of the
soul is opened, there descends upon the whole being a unity of parts and
force, a vitality and serenity that remake that life completely, that lend
magic and grandeur to everything that is touched or taken into
consciousness. Who sees with equal eye, as God of all
A hero perish or a sparrow fall
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’dAnd now a bubble burst, and now a world. — ALEXANDER POPE
 
Path to Illumination
 
While it is true that perception of the indwelling Secret Self ordinarily
comes to harassed mortals only after much suf fering and disillusionment,
nevertheless there is a path by which such suf fering may be avoided in the
main, provided that first the soul is dedicated and sincere in its desire to
make the discovery. The Secret Self is never discovered alone within, but at
the same time is discovered in all places, in all beings, and is found to be
the same in all. Dif ferent forms of life are merely disguises donned for the
moment by the single self that underlies all, that truly is all, a play in which
for the moment the Divine is hidden, in which for that moment it actually
has become in entirety each of the things it has become. All the power and
effectiveness of the Supreme is within you, is yours to use, and is also in
everyone and everything else, existing there behind the curtain of ego-
consciousness, waiting to be discovered. Therefore there is a tremendous
underlying equality to all things under the sun. Each is sprung from the
same substance and has inherent within it the same omnipotent being, and
we are not each of us dif ferent and individual and separate except insofar as
we are incomplete. T o be complete is to be the Secret Self, whole and
entire, without reservation or error. The most painless path to illumination, to perception of the Secret Self, is
thus to arrive at a desire to know the truth that lies behind the surface facade
of the senses and to seek this truth not only within but without, in every
person you meet as well as in yourself. Once this sense of absolute equality
of things and people begins to make itself known to you, then you will
detect a presence in each stone and clod, in each tree and plant, in each
animal and person you meet, locked in a prison dictated by its form to be
sure, but a presence pure and simple of the Secret Self, which has chosenthe masquerade for its own purposes and is not truly locked away from
consciousness of its real self but even now is developing it as we brush at
the veil that separates us from our heritage. Once you sense the presence of the Divine in all things, you are able to
arrive at a sense of equality that makes you in some secret and inviolable
corner of your being untouched by victory or defeat, pleasure or pain,
position or prestige. Y ou become so intent on doing the work of the Secret
Self that you abandon almost altogether the uses of the ego and so achieve a
kind of selflessness in your appearance to the world. Equality is a perfect
psychic position but is impossible to the ego, which seeks forever to be
better than all the egos around it, and if it is not better it is convinced it is
worse and so either becomes blown-up and blind or wounded and fearful
and thus provides the worst of all psychic bases for dealing with life, love,
and accomplishment. T o be equal is to be unafraid. T o know that there
inhabits all others the same being that inhabits you is to achieve a psychic
confidence that enables you to place your life and hopes and ener gies in the
hands of this being without a qualm, with absolute certainty that you will be
guided to perform that work that you must do, in the best of all possible
ways, at the best of all possible times. The Phantom Material W orld
 
It is an established fact that our five senses perceive but the tiniest portion
of the almost infinite spectrum of vibrations that prevails in the universe,
that a million times more remains untold about each thing than can possibly
be perceived by sensual means. Whistles can be made which are
imperceptible to the human ear but are easily heard by certain animals. The
frequency of vibration we know as light is strictly bounded as to the range
that has an ef fect on the human eye, but nevertheless we know there are
variations in what people can see — some are colorblind, others
nearsighted, others farsighted; some have an artist’ s vision, to others
materializations appear, as to Bernadette at Lourdes. In short, materialistswho pride themselves on accepting nothing but the evidence of their senses
are accepting the sketchiest of evidence; they actually pride themselves on
their blindness, accepting things as facts on the basis of knowing a mere
one-billionth of their total qualities. They would not dream of entering a
business deal with such meager knowledge but accept the world and others
and themselves on such evidence and rear like reluctant stallions when it is
suggested to them that they live among phantoms. Focusing attention on the ego and the evidence of the senses is the veil that
hides the Secret Self. The senses themselves are not the veil, only the
impression they give that they are conveying to the observer the total aspect
of things. Nor is ego inherently a veil, only the impression that it gives
through completely dominating the consciousness that it is the actual self of
the person. Hung up in the sensual world and totally immersed in the ego,
we have no chance to perceive the Secret Self. The clarion call sounds but
our ears are not attuned. W ith our tiny and incomplete knowledge, we keep
entering into things without perceiving their true nature and ultimate
destiny. Therefore our path through life is marked mainly by suf fering and
defeat, though occasionally the purposes of this ego will coincide with the
ends of the Divine, in which case we willingly fall victim to our own
duplicity, convinced that our little machinations have moved the world. The
end of our ego is certain still, for it is but flotsam adrift on a sur ging tide
and sooner or later destroys itself by pursuing its separate ends. Resignation and Aspiration
 
To let go of ego is the thing to be done. T o get outside of and free from the
grip of the senses is the only path to discovery of the Secret Self. Many
people are brought to their knees by life before they let go of self and
achieve equality through resignation. Many of the most brilliantly recorded
illuminations have happened in this manner. Out of the utmost defeat and
degradation of the human soul have arisen its most inspirational moments,
but it is doubtful if any human being would willingly choose such a path foran end that is vague to them in the first place. Mystics who have discovered
the Secret Self through mental and spiritual concentration report that even
they have experienced “a dark night of the soul” as the ego was
surrendered. Evelyn Underhill chronicled many such transfigurations, and
all were preceded by a period of deep spiritual and emotional depression,
such as Christ had in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is no easy thing to
surrender ego. It is a kind of death. But it must be done before life can be
enlar ged by the expanded consciousness that results from complete
possession of the individual by the Secret Self. The quality above all things
that is required is courage. Y ou must push of f; the jump must be taken. Lyrically, it is almost exactly as recorded by Dustin Smith, a free-fall
parachutist:
 
The first time you go into a free fall is the weirdest. Y ou have no idea what
is going to happen. Y ou are terrified on the first step. Then you look down,
like God. And the ultimate is going away from the plane. In this you’re free
and you’re purely responsible for yourself. There is a real moment of truth
when you reach for the cord. Y ou come down absolutely elated. Y ou’ve
done something that in one way seems ridiculous, but in another way makes
great sense. Now it is not recommended that any seeker after truth adopt parachuting as
a means to illumination, but there can be no doubt from Mr. Smith’ s
observations that pushing of f from the safety of an airplane into the
unknown dangers of the sky is almost exactly like the spiritual step of
pushing away from the ego and surrendering one’ s life to the unknown
guidance of the Secret Self. They both require courage; they both exemplify
a search. They both typify our aspiration to pierce the veils that blind us. The Country Beyond
 The end r esult of transfiguration, of illumination, is for the ego to be
properly subor dinated to the Divine, but befor e the Secr et Self can even
appear to the aspiring soul ther e must be a prior period of time in which the
edge of the importance of the ego is gradually whittled down until it no
longer occupies the whole consciousness, until ther e is r oom within the
awar eness for light to enter, for the Divine to be r evealed. Some people ar e
so immersed in the workings of the ego that they haven’ t the faintest idea
what subor dinating it to another principle means. T o them the ego is the
beginning and end, the sum of all existence, and accor ding to how they
gratify this surface self by power and position and victory they feel they
have achieved success in life. The truth is that the sur est way to ensur e
against success in life — the success of arriving at a grasp of the meaning
of existence — is to continually gratify the ego. What r esults then is a
blindness by limitation, for the ego, being small, cannot see beyond itself. Jesus, a gr eat mystic and a master of spiritual knowledge, pr onounced it to
be mor e difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a
camel to go thr ough the eye of a needle. This observation of his, of course,
is lar gely parable. It is not strictly rich men Jesus r eferr ed to, for some rich
men ar e most spiritual, but rather people who live to gratify the senses and
their own ingr own vanity; these ar e the ones to whom expanded
consciousness is unavailable. It is denied for no moral r eason, but a pur ely
scientific one. If one chooses to look thr ough a crack in the wall ther e is
revealed a partial world. If one goes thr ough the wall, the true aspect of the
country beyond is r evealed at last. Forsaking ego and uniting with the
Secret Self makes this view possible to the aspiring soul. Expanding Consciousness
 
Consciousness is the key to discovering the Secret Self. T o become aware
that consciousness is the same in all people is a big step on the road to
illumination. Once you have become struck by the enormity of this situation
you will never again be the same, for you will innately perceive that at workin the universe is not a multitude of aspiring and searching souls, but one
individual only, and you are it and it is all others, and so in a very real sense
you and your neighbor are one. Once the magnificent implications of this
fact have come home to you, you will see that the secret of ef fective living
is not the exerting of your individual will as you have always supposed it to
be, but rather in growing to know and understand events and objects so that
you can correctly perceive their true purpose and destiny. And you will not
do that by observing the surface facts as recorded by the ego-self, but only
by expanding your consciousness to the point where objects and events
become a part of you, as they surely are in actuality, for both you and they
are the Secret Self. To expand consciousness infinitely would be to grow into oneness with the
one force, the one power, the one mind that truly exists. Perhaps this goal in
this age and at this stage of evolution is impossible, but nevertheless we can
expand our present consciousness a thousandfold, if not to include the
universe, certainly to include our friends and neighbors and the events and
circumstances that surround us. By a process of identification we can come
to know other things and other people and outside events even as we know
ourselves, and possessed by this knowledge we can act in the midst of all
things in complete accord with their true nature and destiny, and so our
actions take on a kind of omnipotence, our works a kind of absolute
effectiveness, so that we appear to be molding and changing the world
about us when in truth we are only acting in conformity with its real but
unrevealed nature. Magic Alchemy
 
“It is not I, but a power greater than I” is the first acknowledgment we must
make to the Secret Self. Once this is done, we have by a kind of surrender
placed our fate where it should be, in the hands of something infinitely
more informed and more capable. T o forsake the ur gings and promptings of
the surface nature and ego is the first step, for as long as we are bound tothis inef fective and tiny microcosm we cannot be ef fective in our works or
serene in our spiritual development. W e must turn away from that which we
have always considered self and embrace that which we have always
considered other than self, and in that turning away and in that embracing
lies our salvation. “It is not I who doeth the works,” stated Jesus, “but the
Father that dwelleth within me. ” And when his transfiguration was
complete: “I and the Father are one. ”
The surface self will not surrender lightly. Its struggles and misguided
urgings will be constant. W ise and extremely enlightened is the person who
manages to control their ego at all times. T o be human is to be subject to
error, but to discover within the image of perfection and joy is to find a way
out of the morass of physical sensation in which we find ourselves
entrapped in life. Salvation for all of us is as near as ourselves, for there
dwells within each of us a hallowed light, a hidden self that can relieve our
sufferings and frustrations, no matter how painful or enduring. W e have
only to discover and embrace it, for it to become our true selves and to
work its magic in our lives. OceanofPDF. com 
3
 
The Greatest Magic of All
 
Mechanistic notions of life ar e all too pr evalent in society today. Most
people believe a thing is what it is because of being made out of, by, and
from other things, and most of us ar e intent on moving this thing by
hand, as if fancying ourselves chess players and life the board and the
pieces the things we ar e concerned with. All too soon we find we ar e
opposed by an inscrutable and ruthless opponent, and our end is
inevitable. W e have concerned ourselves with only the surface aspect of
the game, and such a viewpoint never can fathom life’ s nuances and
real significance. Immortal Hand and Eye
 
Material concepts of existence wind up depressingly sterile, for after the
complex machinery of the human body is reduced to its tiniest cell, still the
animating presence is not found; nothing is there but the yawning abyss of a
dead and unheeding universe to greet the material researcher. The form of a
thing suits its function, and its function suits its purpose, and inherent in
each is a complex and highly intelligent design, far surpassing anything yet
possible to the surface mind. It is not so much the form that we must be
concerned with, but the idea that lies behind form, the intelligent purpose
that gives that form perfect function. Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry. — WILLIAM BLAKE
 
Witness the pacing of the sleek and powerful tiger in the cages of a zoo and
you know at once that you are seeing a creature consummately designed for
a specific function, without a wasted motion, without a spare or useless
part. Examine the myriad geometrical designs of snowflakes and you
become immediately aware that behind creation lies a supreme
mathematical mind, a millionfold more comprehending than that of the
most erudite of scientists. The ordered spinning of the planets in space, the
arrangement of solar systems in the universe, the design of the atom, the
deep and inscrutable mystery of animation; surely we are blind if we fail to
recognize the working of a supreme intelligence, guiding, molding,
directing with purpose. Out of the infinite plastic creativeness of this
intelligence have all things sprung. It makes all, fashions everything from
itself. W e do not hold the fate of the universe in our hands; that fate is safe
and sure in the hands of our creator, and that creator has incarnated in us all
of its potentiality and power. The ends of evolution were assured long before humans arrived upon the
earthly scene; they were assured from the very beginning. That intelligence
of suf ficient scope to have within it the power to originate the concepts of
space and time and matter, to create the countless forms of life and animate
them with its own presence, surely would not, in any crisis, abdicate, give
over control to one of its partially developed and fractionally aware
creations. This, however, is the conclusion that some of our thinkers have
come to, those, at least, who believe that people control the universe andtheir own destiny, material people, surface people, ego-centered, partially
aware people. Steps among the Stars
 
There is a hidden cause of all things, hidden because it is not visible,
invisible because it takes no special form, fits no special description. It lies
eternally and omnisciently behind the consciousness of every living thing,
and it determines all fates, all consequences, all conflicts and resolutions. It
is not thwarted in a single aspect of its being or purpose; there are within it
no loose ends, no unresolved conflicts. It is universal mind, divine
intelligence, the Secret Self that animates every living thing. It is as lar ge as
infinity, there are no limits upon its capabilities or powers, and it resides
completely and entirely within you. Hidden though it be from your surface
mind, it is your own immortal self. This is the self whose steps are visible in the stars, in the infinitesimal and
complex design of the germinating seed, in the color and grandeur and
bustling ener gy of evolving life. It brings all forms into existence, crumbles
and dissipates them when the idea behind them has been expressed. It is the
sole being, the one mind, the solitary life, the only true presence, the one
real self in existence. Immortal, never born, never dying, the infinite sides
of its manifold nature are expressed on the stage of life, and each of its
creations contains within it all of the essence and power and intelligence of
the creator; each has within it the Secret Self. Life T aps Us on the Shoulder
 “What good is it,” you may ask, “to have a self that is so far beyond my
comprehension, that it isn’ t even the ‘I’ that I’ve always thought myself to
be. ” There is a very great deal of good. If you focus yourself in the surface
mind, then the dimensions of life are forever hidden from you; you do not
know where you came from and you do not know where you are going; you
even wonder if one day you might suddenly cease to be. Y ou cannot fathom
the billions of miles of distance to the nearest star or the billions of years
since the earth first swung into orbit around the sun. Y ou cannot see the
mind of another person, understand what animates a living being,
comprehend the purpose of life. All is mystery, all dwarfs the little ego,
which literally cannot see beyond its own nose and grasps even that but
vaguely. Unless we are as uncomprehending as cows in the field, we cannot help but
be sick when we live focused in the ego; the world is just too big. Fear and
futility and guilt and frustration are our daily lot when we are small and
inadequate and know that we are small and inadequate. W e may be mice
and roar like lions, but we will soon know that we are mice if we live
absorbed in the ego. Life taps each of us on the shoulder. We either listen or
get knocked down. No individual reigns supreme; we are all part and parcel
of one mind, one self, one supreme intelligence; and inasmuch as we
understand this transforming fact that intelligence enters completely into us
and possesses us and uses us for its work in the world, we perform to the
zenith of our human capabilities. Tunnel V ision
 
Implicit in the universe is first cause, original impetus, and this first cause is
a primal intelligence from which all things have sprung. It is involved in
expressing itself, and the result is the infinite variety and design of life, the
endless series of evolving forms that inhabit the world. Each form is not a
separate creation of the original intelligence, but rather is an expression of
it, so that there dwells in each the original intelligence itself, masqueradingas the form and limited to that extent, but in essence remaining infinite and
eternal and omniscient. Y ou are not the limited surface self and ego that you
have always fancied yourself to be, but you are that very primal intelligence
that has manifested all the forms of the universe. Reflection on the nature of intelligence and consciousness reveals why this
is so. When our attention is focused upon a certain thing, inasmuch as our
absorption is complete, we become the thing that has our attention. This
“tunnel vision” quality of consciousness is responsible for the remarkable
phenomena of hypnosis. Where hypnosis is deep and consciousness may be
directed toward a single object, subject becomes object and we do not know
ourselves in any other way. If told that we are a duck, we quack and waddle. If told that we are a bear, we growl. If told that we are a politician, we
deliver orations. W e know ourselves only as a duck when a duck, only as a
bear when a bear, only as a politician when a politician. Surely universal
intelligence itself must be so absorbed in each of its manifestations,
becoming the thing it has become with complete amnesia for its true state
and all other manifestations of its nature. This is why we do not know what
we truly are and become the thing that our consciousness is focused upon. Conceptual Universe
 
It would seem that universal mind or primal intelligence has the ability to
become anything it would become, or rather, that its inherent nature is to
become anything that takes root within it as idea, as thought. The existence
of this universal mind must be purely mental. Chief and perhaps solely its
activity is thought. It is thinking, and each of its thoughts is manifested as a
form in the material world. Each thought contains within it all of the
intelligence of the thinker, so that a thought is a thing capable of developing
other thoughts. Thus, if a person is a thought in the mind of an eternal
thinker, then all of the intelligence of that eternal thinker is latent in the
person, and thus the seed of liberation from a directed and focused
consciousness is implicit in each of us. W e can, in ef fect, become anything,do anything, since behind our focused awareness lies a universal and
omniscient mind. The seed of all possibilities lies within us. Short arm needs man to reach to Heaven
So ready is Heaven to stoop to him. — FRANCIS THOMPSON
 
The metaphysical aspects of the relationship of universal mind with your
own surface mind must be grasped in some manner before it is possible to
free yourself from bondage to sensual reaction and slavery to circumstance. It is perfectly all right to admonish a suf ferer from circumstance to think
positively, but all too often they have not the resources within them to
accomplish this, any more than they are able to take arms against the
physical events that attack them. It takes a wealth of spiritual resource to
produce the courage necessary to free the soul from bondage to the surface
self. And it takes a heap of courage to sustain one on that leap into the void
of absolute freedom that comes with complete reliance on the Secret Self. Generally speaking, motives of monetary gain or personal ascendancy are
simply not suf ficient to produce the drive necessary to promote unity
between the Secret Self and the surface nature. When we desire things
through selfish motives we narrow our perceptual horizons to where it is
impossible for us to glimpse the vast and powerful being that dwells within
us. W e can be beaten into complete submission, into abject humility, but
such cessation of the ur gings of the ego is all too often temporary, and when
the equilibrium of our lives has been restored, then the ego gathers new
strength, reconsiders its abdication, once again takes over the life to the
sorrow of the person within. The only true and lasting conversion to unity
with the Secret Self comes from possessing the facts of the mental and
spiritual world we inhabit, so that all mind is seen one mind, all spirit one
spirit, all persons one person, and such perception is not accepted on faith
or belief but from a clear perception of the facts as they exist, onindisputable and irrevocable proof. Only mental understanding through
increased awareness can accomplish this. The Eternal Thinker
 
Life for each of us is exactly as we construe it to be, and this is the mental
law under which we live. Similarly, all notions of theology and metaphysics
are, for each of us, exactly as we construe them to be, for the ideas that take
root in our consciousness determine the scope and limitation of our
consciousness. In short, God is as we fancy Him to be, and we have only to
change our notion of Him in order to change Him. He is idea only because
He is mind, and that idea which is the lar gest, the most perfect, most
workable, clearest, is therefore the nearest approximation of the Godhead. Our illness is caused by the little way we are able to see, and only as we
enlar ge our vision, push back our horizons, are we cured. The metaphysic upon which this book is based is this: There is an eternal
thinker eternally thinking, and each thought the thinker thinks appears to be
separate from the thinker, but it is not; it represents the thinker only, but not
entirely, and insofar as the thought exists at all it is the thinker, though not
completely. The thinker is God, the thought is the person, and God has
absorbed Himself in the thought but is not bound by this absorption, and
may liberate Himself at any time by expanding his awareness. As long as
we are absorbed in the ego, we are absorbed in the thought and remain the
thought, are bound by the idea that actuated us in the first place, but when
we lay aside our absorption in the ego, then our entrancement has begun to
shatter, and we are beginning to recognize ourselves as God. As soon as we
make any approximation of this psychic position whatever, we have arrived
at a place where we can change the idea that actuated our ego in the first
place, where we can make ourselves into entirely dif ferent people simply by
being able to accept an entirely new and dif ferent idea about ourselves. We must penetrate the apparent duality of life before we are able to clearly
understand our oneness with the Secret Self. There are not many dif ferent
natures and beings at work in the world; only one. All are dif ferent aspects
of this one being. In each is enclosed that amount of consciousness that
determines the form of the thing, but the consciousness enclosed is still the
consciousness of the Secret Self, limited and apparently separated because
it is absorbed in the thing it has become. And this absorption, this
limitation, is what we know as surface self, as ego, and it is the veil that
separates us from knowledge of our vaster nature and true being. T o get rid
of ego then is the thing to be done. T o subordinate it to the Secret Self, to
place it in proper psychic position to its master and director, and above all
to recognize it as primarily illusion, a changing thing, a temporary cloud
that stands between us and pure and complete unity with the Divine, these
are the steps novitiates must take before their works in the world are
marked by power and ef fectiveness. Conditioning Consciousness
 
All lack, limitation, and malfunction that touches our lives is carried in our
minds, is literally created there because it is a product of our limited and
ego-centered consciousness. W e stumble because we do not see, and this
condition of not-seeing places the obstacle in our path. The English utopian
philosopher Edward Carpenter stated, “It should be as easy to expel an
obnoxious thought out of your mind as to shake a stone out of your shoe,”
but, alas, it is not so. The obnoxious thought is not a thing of itself, but
rather the lack of a thing. Negative conditions are imperfect perceptions. It
is when we are not able to perceive that we falter. You simply cannot turn
your mind upside down and shake out something that is not there in the first
place. The reason the obnoxious thought exists is because the consciousness
is too small and simply does not see. The remedy, rather than trying to cast
out something that is not truly there, is to expand consciousness until it can
be seen that lack and limitation and malfunction only exist by virtue of
imperfect mental perception. This is why there is such a great deal of failureon the part of persons who try to create positive conditions in their lives by
thinking positively. Usually such positive thoughts center around money,
health, love, security, inner peace. Section summary: 

This passage discusses various philosophical themes related to spirituality, psychology, philosophy,

References

• Alexander Pope (1711)
– Carl jung


Source URL [link]

Please summarize the excerpt's main arguments according to Anti-Reiteration Mechanisms. Summaries need NOT repeat phrases/words/phrases similar words multiple instances. **Avoid repetition**. Summary:


* Humans consist of numerous conflicting "many" selves, leading to internal strife & potentially schizophrenia-like symptoms due to inability to reconcile contradictory impulses (# contradictions). * Despite acknowledging the complexity/dangers associated with Ego/Surface Nature (**Egotistical tendencies**), psychologist insights emphasize taking charge and imposing Discipline/Directors' authority (*Henry*, etc. ) ; otherwise resulting in Paranoia/Egoself-disintegration. )
      –> Surface-Secret separation = Mental chaos/Psyche collapse. • Consciounss   ->  Specific Instances → Illusions / Limitation :  
       * Inner conflict stems from neglecting 'Divinity'. + Avoids Realization, ignorance ~<—->~ Blind Spot
          |            |
          



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Here i did a brief summarizing overview using unique phraseology avoiding repeated mentions 



Let Me Know IF YOU NEED MORE HELP OR CLARIFICATION ON THIS TEXT SECTION SUMMARIZATION.
The human psyche is a battleground for opposing forces, and we have multiple selves that are not our true selves.
What is the nature of the human psyche, according to the author?
The surface self is not the true self, and we must learn to surrender to the guidance of the Secret Self to achieve true fulfillment.
What is the relationship between the surface self and the Secret Self?
The key is to expand our consciousness and awareness to perceive the infinite and eternal nature of our true self.
What is the key to unlocking the power of the Secret Self?
The author believes that free will is not an individual concept, but rather an illusion created by the ego, and that true freedom and empowerment come from aligning with the Secret Self.
What is the author's perspective on the concept of free will?
The author believes that the universe is a single, all-encompassing intelligence that animates all things, and that individuals must recognize and align with this intelligence to achieve true self-actualization and fulfillment.
What is the author's view on the nature of the universe and its relationship to the individual?