Spiritual Solutions

I have heard some people say that they never feel the flow of inspiration, that they never have original ideas. So, I suggest “Why not take time to get still and listen?” It’s impossible to experience the inflow of creative ideas if one constantly surrounds oneself with activity and noise and a ceaseless babble of conversation.

When we consider the word “listen” we think of listening with the ears, but you really listen with your mind. Listening connotes receiving an inward vibration or response to an outward stimulus, and it implies sensitivity to it. Vibrations are everywhere, and we can and must cultivate the ability to hear and to heed the message of a transcendent spiritual source within and in the world around us. Shakespeare points to this in As You Like It when he acknowledges the existence of “tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” And, as Emerson says, “There is guidance for everyone, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word.”

In the book of Ecclesiastes we find this wise observation: “In everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven . . . a time to speak, and a time to keep silence.” In our complex way of life today, though many of us pride ourselves in the way in which we order our lives, I wonder how many of us really find the time or make the time to keep silence? Every one of us has a deep and compelling need for solitude, for quietness, but often do not realize this need.

In the Gospel of John we find a reference to “The same light that lighteth every man coming into the world.” The implication is that there is a common mind, a common source of inspiration within us all, and that each of us contains within the same fountainhead of ideas and power that is occasionally revealed by the genius. Only a few acts upon it, but the Truth is that each of us is a spiritual being with an inner potential guidance and strength. Anyone who cares to may cultivate the inner side of life, and release a tremendous potential.

We need to know that God is forever speaking to us in the form of a creative flow, and that we must cultivate the attitude of listening in prayer, in quiet meditation and silence. It is true that many turn to prayer to correct the problems of life, but there is prayer and there is prayer. For the average person, prayer is an attempt to contact an outer agency through which his experiences can be righted. His prayer may be words, form, ritual, in which there is no letting go, no stillness, no inner contact.

There is a kind of prayer that is called “The Silence.” It is inner prayer, not just a prayer of words, but a time of quiet realization, inner communion, stillness, and oneness. And the interesting thing is that all the really great people of all time have unconsciously realized that to make the journey through life solitude and silence must be practiced. All knew that occasional retreat from the surface rippling of experiences into the hidden depths of silence within is the source of the best vistas, the newest ideas, and the closest contact with the great heart of the allness of God.

There is that within you that knows your needs. Jesus said, “The Father knoweth what things you have need of even before you ask him.” And in the Old Testament we read, “Before they call, I will answer.” Has it ever occurred to you that whenever you have a need or a problem of any kind, the answer, the guidance, the help is as close to you as your inmost self? We live too much at the circumference of life. We act and react on the level of the human, the material, and the superficial. We feel strain and tension and mental and physical depletion because we are out of tune. The need is to relax and let go, to be still and know our spiritual unity is with God, to be charged and re-charged by the creative Spirit of God within us.

Man is never quite mature in a spiritual sense until he cultivates the silence, this inward stillness, until he realizes his unity with the Infinite and takes time regularly to listen to the inner voice.

Perhaps the words of prayer we say are not for God at all, but for ourselves to condition our minds and hearts to become receptive to the voice, the spirit, the feeling of the Infinite. Perhaps our words need to be directed to our errant thoughts, our tense minds, our worried hearts – to cultivate the true feeling of “letting go” so that we can truly “let God.” This requires humility, relaxation, and a complete trust in the Truth of the inward reality. We must be willing to accept the fact that our own imperfect thoughts are insufficient, and that of ourselves we can do nothing. We must make a supreme but gentle effort to get completely relaxed, and this means finding the time and the place. And we must stir up the belief that we are spiritual beings, and that when we let go, God takes over.

One important point relative to inner prayer – though we usually pray when we have a problem, we pray for help or healing or supply, the practice of the Silence has no other goal than the refreshment of spiritual breathing. Just as an electrical appliance cannot function unless it is plugged in, so man is inadequate and incomplete until he is in tune with the Presence within.

This evening, as you retire, resolve to spend the last few moments “laboring for an inner stillness.” Become relaxed and still and then quietly breathe some words, such as “There is nothing in my life but God. I live in God, and God expresses through me. Without God I can do nothing; with God I can do all things. I and the Father are one.”

Just relax; know that you too are one with the Father, that the Infinite power of the Universe is your resource, your help in every need. Just relax and accept it. If you go to sleep tonight feeling this unitive relationship with the Infinite, you will awaken in the morning feeling like a new person. If you practice this Silence every day . . . you will be a new person.

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