IN an attempt to find solutions to the problems of everyday life, we tend to seek an outside authority such as someone that is believed to be more intelligent than the average Joe. We consult psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, religious leaders – any so called expert – who we believe can supply the answers to the problems we have with the world today.

To attempt to fix these problems, we usually create laws against, fines and jail terms for, rehabilitation centers to help, law enforcement agencies to protect, penalties to deter, incentives or enticements to obey. All are useless measures, for as is evident – the problems not only persist, but escalate over time.

No matter how much thought is put into it however and how earnest we may be to find a solution, we are only treating the symptoms. We – and the so called experts, can only look at the past for the answers – and the answers are not there.

The past has happened already. If there was a solution there, there would not be a problem to deal with. New problems need new solutions. Any problems we have, no matter what they are, need a new approach.

All of mankind’s major advances, all of the ways we have found to solve or alleviate problems in the past has been caused by a flash of inspiration, a sudden realization of what the answer to the problem is, not from governments, committees, discussion groups, deciding in their ‘wisdom’ how it can be solved.

Edison’s light bulb had nothing to do with wax and wicks. He may have studied a candle at the start but the inspiration to put a filament inside a vacuum flask and heat it with electricity was completely new – out of the blue. It came to him in a flash. This little bit of inspiration solved a problem, taking away the darkness and lighting up our world.

When Fleming discovered penicillin, the solution literally flew in through the window. Penicillin is a type of mould that up until then, was thought to be a dirty thing, a residue of rotting or decaying matter. The last thing anyone would think then was that mould could heal – but it did and still does – it was inspirational and a new way of looking at medicine.

Trains, planes and automobiles were all inspired inventions. Our ancestors could have had no possible way of envisioning, thinking about or picturing in their minds, such strange contraptions. There was nothing on earth to compare such modes of transport to, nor was there anything in the egos library to relate them to. They were new!

When thinking about mankind’s upcoming voyage to Mars, scientists are trying to plan a spaceship to take us there. Those plans are based on the past – propulsion provided by rockets and such. They have no way of ‘thinking’ up or picturing some completely new way of propulsion because they can only look at the past.

It’s a pretty good bet that in the near future, some scientist will have an inspiration, a thought-less vision of a completely new way to propel our astronauts into outer space. Like trains, planes and automobiles in the past, at the moment, there is no way that any of us can imagine what that way may be. It is something as yet new to our mind and needs inspiration, not thought to discover it.

As with new technology, new solutions to everyday problems are the same, they must be inspired. Inspiration has nothing to do with the past, in fact the two are like fire and water – they do not mix. Inspiration comes from a different place. A different part of mind is used.

Of course, once something new is invented or discovered, or a problem solved, the ego is quick to add it to its library of the past and next time we have a similar problem, we are hit with the same old dilemma – until we look at it in a new way.

The ego cannot think new, it can only think old. To solve our problems, we need to be inspired, to see the problem completely and clearly, without the handicap of thought.

Dan’s Quote: “Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory
_____________of an act never experienced.”- Ned Rorem