WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes
Cosmic Consciousness ~ Illumination (Continued)
"The highest mental practice is to listen to this Inner Voice and to declare Its Presence. The greater a man's consciousness of this Indwelling I AM, the more fully he will live. This will never lead to illusion, but will always lead to Reality. All great souls have known this and have constantly striven to let the Mind of God express through their mentalities. "The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." This was the declaration of the great Master, and it should be ours also; not a limited sense of life but a limitless one.
It is impossible to put into words or into print what a mystic sometimes sees, and it is as difficult to believe - to realize that it is so - as it is to put it into words. But there is a certain inner sense which, at times, sees Reality in a flash which illuminates the whole being with a great flood of light. This too, might seem an illusion unless the testimony were complete, but every mystic has had this experience...some in a greater degree than others. Jesus was the greatest of all the mystics and, once at least, after a period of illumination, his face was so bright that his followers could not look upon it. All mystics have seen this Cosmic Light. This is why it is said they were illumined. They have all had the same experience, whether it was Moses coming down from the mountain, Jesus after the resurrection, Saul on his return to Damascus, Emerson walking across the Common in Concord - where suddenly he became conscious of this light - or Whitman who refers to it as that which "stuck its forked tongue" into his being as he lay on the grass, or whether it was Edward Carpenter who, after leaving Whitman and looking up, thought all of New York City was in flames. This light the great artists have sensed so completely that they have depicted it as a halo around the heads of saints, an atmosphere of light.
Bucke points out that the illumination of all mystics has been accompanied by a great light. He feels that Emerson walked on the verge of this light for many years - and more continuously than most people - but did not have quite as definite an experience of its fullness as some others; but that he had what we might term a greater continuation of what we shall call a lesser light.
It is interesting that LIGHT should come with an expansion of consciousness. "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not." We all, in varying degrees, enter into this sense - into this illumination - all people have sensed that Truth is Light. If a spiritual treatment could be seen (and a spiritual treatment merely means the mind unifying with Good) it would be seen as a pathway of light. This light is not created. It is not a psychological explosion; it is something which pre-exists. It is useless to try to visualize it or to make it appear. It is not a trick of concentration. "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not by observation.""
Ernest Holmes
Cosmic Consciousness ~ Illumination (Continued)
"The highest mental practice is to listen to this Inner Voice and to declare Its Presence. The greater a man's consciousness of this Indwelling I AM, the more fully he will live. This will never lead to illusion, but will always lead to Reality. All great souls have known this and have constantly striven to let the Mind of God express through their mentalities. "The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." This was the declaration of the great Master, and it should be ours also; not a limited sense of life but a limitless one.
It is impossible to put into words or into print what a mystic sometimes sees, and it is as difficult to believe - to realize that it is so - as it is to put it into words. But there is a certain inner sense which, at times, sees Reality in a flash which illuminates the whole being with a great flood of light. This too, might seem an illusion unless the testimony were complete, but every mystic has had this experience...some in a greater degree than others. Jesus was the greatest of all the mystics and, once at least, after a period of illumination, his face was so bright that his followers could not look upon it. All mystics have seen this Cosmic Light. This is why it is said they were illumined. They have all had the same experience, whether it was Moses coming down from the mountain, Jesus after the resurrection, Saul on his return to Damascus, Emerson walking across the Common in Concord - where suddenly he became conscious of this light - or Whitman who refers to it as that which "stuck its forked tongue" into his being as he lay on the grass, or whether it was Edward Carpenter who, after leaving Whitman and looking up, thought all of New York City was in flames. This light the great artists have sensed so completely that they have depicted it as a halo around the heads of saints, an atmosphere of light.
Bucke points out that the illumination of all mystics has been accompanied by a great light. He feels that Emerson walked on the verge of this light for many years - and more continuously than most people - but did not have quite as definite an experience of its fullness as some others; but that he had what we might term a greater continuation of what we shall call a lesser light.
It is interesting that LIGHT should come with an expansion of consciousness. "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not." We all, in varying degrees, enter into this sense - into this illumination - all people have sensed that Truth is Light. If a spiritual treatment could be seen (and a spiritual treatment merely means the mind unifying with Good) it would be seen as a pathway of light. This light is not created. It is not a psychological explosion; it is something which pre-exists. It is useless to try to visualize it or to make it appear. It is not a trick of concentration. "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not by observation.""
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