Table of Contents
The Inner Life
THE HERALD OF THE NEW AGE | JUNE 1938
ON PROBLEM SOLVING
AUTHOR’S NOTE:—The inner mind, or Soul-self, has contact with all knowledge, in the degree that it is conscious of its integration with the Universal. It is forever in the process of trying to release more and more of its light to the personal self or human mind. If the human mind (individual conscious mind) knew how and would do it, it could make it a hundred times easier for intelligence to flow down into human recognition and expression. A question definitely formulated and proposed by the conscious mind, and directed to the Inner Mind, creates a condition whereby the higher intelligence can flow in. Potentially, then, a man can learn to answer his own questions on any subject, and so have access to all the higher intelligence he cares to use. If this be true, then it is a matter of very great importance.
The method indicated in these articles is an effort in that direction. It is often surprising how one can in this way bring out thoughts of apparent value which previously had not been in the conscious mind. Thus the process itself is more important than the answers to any particular set of questions. While it is “new” to me, and more or less self-developed by me in my own life, it is doubtless as old as humanity itself, and already might be familiar to many. In fact, everyone instinctively does something of this kind whenever he tries to think something out. So perhaps the “newness,” if any, merely consists of doing consciously what one normally does instinctively, but perhaps with less definiteness.
An important point, it seems to me, is this: Unless the question is directed consciously to the deeper Self, the answer is likely to come from the objective mind, which is always ready to butt in and claim to be the whole thing. It is conceivable that a technique could be developed whereby one could establish a conscious connection with the All-knowing Mind within and get intuitive answers to any question. Perhaps the average person, even among those who are somewhat enlightened, does not use 1% of his possibilities.
q. THEY tell me, I said to the Soul-self, that you claim that every problem that ever faced any person has its possible solution. Will you amplify that for me?
a. What is it you really want to know?
q. Why should we forever be facing problems?
a. For the very reason you asked that question that way.
q. Isn’t that a fair question? It is something I’d like very much to know.
a. Then why do you close the door to knowing by the very way you word your question?
q. Did I do that? Please explain it to me.
a. By asserting, as part of your question, that “we forever are facing problems,” you imply that “we forever are facing problems.” That implies that you believe that problems are an eternal part of life, so you give them the power and prestige of being forever.
q. Oh, that was just a way of saying it. I really don’t mean it that way.
a. But you said it, and you must have meant it enough to say it. If you hadn’t believed it, in some degree, you wouldn’t have said it.
q. What should I have said, then?
a. You might have asked why we sometimes have problems.
q. Very well, then, I’ll ask it that way. Why do we sometimes have problems?
a. All problems are dilemmas, a double-forked road, and we cannot decide which road to take.
q. Can that be proved?
a. Certainly. Isn’t any problem just a matter of not knowing how to choose the right answer?
q. Perhaps so. But that takes intelligence one may not have.
a. The One Intelligence knows the right answer to any problem that ever confronted any human being. By its very nature it is seeking to reveal itself at every point where it possibly can get through.
q. I am certainly open-minded. Why doesn’t the right answer, drawn from the One Intelligence, pop into my mind whenever I require it?
a. Normally it would do just that—just as surely as the light flows in when you raise the window-curtain facing the sunlight.
q. Seems so easy, and sounds logical. But what keeps it from working out that way?
a. Strange as it may seem to you, it never fails to work out that way, instantly—when you do your part.
q. Then you would imply that I am the controlling factor in every problem I face?
a. I not only imply it, but I affirm it.
q. Wonderful, if true.
a. Both wonderful and true. Real truth is always wonderful. “His name shall be called Wonderful.” The most wonderful thing that ever comes into human consciousness is the perception of truth.
q. Then, would you imply that the perception of truth will solve any human problem?
a. A real perception of truth, yes. It always will dissolve every human problem like the light destroys the darkness.
q. What, then, is the trouble? So many who try to perceive and realize truth often have many problems to face.
a. The trouble is that they have conflicting ideals, and these ideals determine what appears to them as truth. They try to hold both perceptions at once. Their forces are focused in opposing directions.
q. Something like trying to go east and west at the same moment. Is that it?
a. Exactly so. You are beginning to perceive the truth. Isn’t it wonderful.
q. Can I test it safely on any problem I may have?
a. Yes, indeed. If it works instantly you can be sure you’ve got it clearly. If it doesn’t, it may be because you concede, as something inevitable, that “of course it will take time for it to work out.” Light does not ask for time to dispel darkness. Truth does not ask time to be all powerful; it already is.
q. Then let me make sure I understand you. If I decide definitely whether I want to go “east or west” it will, you claim, simplify my problem?
a. That’s the idea, perfectly. Indecision, in your inner consciousness, is the root of all problems. The moment you choose one thing, and put it first, and let go of everything that would pull you in an opposite direction, in that moment something big happens in your life.
—From Nautilus Magazine for April.
Because of the similarity of the above to the Impersonal Teachings and to what is given monthly in Soul Communion, we give to our readers this clear explanation and expression of the truth of the Inner or Soul-self, and know everyone can get just the results the author gained, if he will persist until he is able to prove it for himself.
We took the liberty of omitting the name given by the Author to this Inner Self, feeling it tended only to confuse the reader and made questions, where what was needed was complete concentration upon the truths so well enunciated.—The EDITOR.
————o————
MAN
MAN is a soul!
Man continually keeps coming into the Temple called the body until he, individually and collectively, has learned all of earth’s lessons.
Man will, individually and collectively, at the proper time, find that heaven is here. Then death shall be followed up in Victory, and Man will be preserved—body, soul and spirit—forever.—S. N.
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