Illumination implies a wordless state. For light to enter, a vessel must be clear and empty, or at least transparent. How does this connect with spiritual evolution? Thoughts comprise our inner world, known in the Fourth Way as the many ‘I’s. Not all ‘I’s are thoughts. We register many emotions, movements, and bodily sensations as well[1]. As a contemporary spiritual teacher observed, ‘the many ‘I’s repeat themselves, so one gains experience observing them’.
Peter Ouspensky said that we have no control of emotions, some control of movement, and more control of thought. This dependability of the intellect characterizes us as human beings. Significant works of art and science require at least some intentional thought. The spiritual aspirant, however, uses thought as a tool to create consciousness, or presence.
In the article’s featured image, from the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I (Egypt, 1200 B.C.), a human being lies down between a bull, a hippopotamus, and a crocodile. This could mean that forces other than his desire to awaken have surfaced. His mind seems to be clouded, without a firm resolve to sweep away imagination or ‘I’s not connected with presence.
“For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then, face to face.” I Corinthians
Although we cannot control emotions, Ouspensky assures us that we can change emotional attitudes. Emotional attitudes color our inner world. This change of attitude entails suffering. We have help. Celestial light, or celestial influence[2], men and women who awakened and became immortal, reach out to us to follow them.
The higher reality of C Influence exists always and everywhere, above the river and confusion of time, events, and the lower world. This influence beckons to us to ascend and merge with it. To do so, all that is necessary is to allow celestial light in. Even a chink in the cave of our inner world will bring about illumination. As a contemporary spiritual teacher put it, the lower self[3] does not have outside help. The part in us that wishes to awaken has this celestial light on its side.
What in me is dark illumine, what is low raise and support;
That, to the height of this great argument,
I may assert Eternal Providence,
and justify the ways of God to men.
– John Milton[4]
The author has been a student of the Fourth Way for four decades. For other articles in the FourthWayToday magazine by Benjamin, see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/benjamin-b/.
[1] According to the Fourth Way the human machine has 4 lower centers, or brains: instinctive, moving, emotional, and intellectual.
[2] Hence C influence
[3] The Lower self and the machine are nearly synonymous. The lower self is the part of the machine that opposes presence, or self-remembering.
[4] John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet.