The great philosopher and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said that “One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.” So saying, he added his own affirmation to the postulate that inspiration comes from within. Just as your connection to spirit is an internal connection.

How else could it possibly work? Indeed society will try to instruct you that god or spirit is an anthromorphic manifestation that sits on a throne in the sky. So if god ‘wrote’  the bible,  just how did this work? He wrote it out with his own hand and tossed it down to Earth? Or did he sit with a cosmic megaphone, dictating it to some poor slob on Earth, shouting;

“IN THE BEGINNING…”

“Huh? What was that? Slow down please, I’m still om the first page of the begats…”

 I love Dr. Wayne Dyer’s analogy that, if god is like the ocean, then we are each a glass of that ocean water. If we are all part of god or spirit or consciousness, (whatever overburdened term you like) then we each have our own source and connection back to that spirit and that is the source of our inspiration.

Indeed, society will instruct you until you can’t see straight. It will give you memes and all manner of blocks and knots to keep you from your own inspiration. Then solitude may actually be necessary to still the voices of society and to hear your own inspiration again.

It was Jim Rohn, well known entrepreneur, author and speaker who said; “Wealth is not a matter of intelligence; it’s a matter of inspiration.”

The truth of the matter is that pretty much everyone has inspiration. The question is whether or not they listen to that ‘still small voice,’ or say “No, that’s nuts! I had better keep my nose to the grindstone and play it safe. That’s the smart thing to do!”

People get into the habit of filtering out their own inspiration and doing the ’logical’ or ‘smart’ thing which is usually always what society tells them to do. It was Earl Nightingale who said that cowardice was conformity.

If you want to do something in your life and ‘find your fortune,’ you have to be courageous and listen to your inspiration. You need to stand out from the crowd because conforming will only bring you the same predictable results which, if you read the news, are not good. By conforming, you will get the same results as everyone else.

If you were able to ask a lot of the great minds from the past just where their inspiration came from, that’s the one thing they probably couldn’t tell you for sure. Strange thing.

But, in all cases, they could agree that their inspiration ‘came to them.’  That is to say it was something given to them and, in that way, they would be taking only partial credit for the idea or perhaps just taking credit for ‘being there.’ Maybe Woody Allan was right to say that 90% of success is just showing up.

Certainly this idea of inspiration ‘coming to you,’ like a gift, is a large part of what it’s all about. By letting something ‘come to you,’ you’re acknowledging that you’re accepting help from perhaps a larger source and not trying to do it all by yourself.

Certainly to say that god or source is the origin of inspiration seems reasonable since god or source has created everything in existence, if you buy that postulate.

Joe Vitale has said that he believes god doesn’t just give one person an idea but gives the same idea to a number of people. Therefore, if you have an idea and don’t act on it, you can expect someone else to.

This would certainly go along with the idea that we are all one consciousness. So the ideas are there, in the air and it’s up to us to ‘be there,; and be open to accept the gift.

If it’s beautiful music, we need to be ‘up there,’ in the high energy, if it’s a brilliant solution we have to be more or less expecting an answer.

“When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer-say, traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep-it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and more abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them.” W.A. Mozart.

I guess he would know.

We see that this is mostly consistent with the examination in the previous post but we have a new element introduced here; that of not forcing the ideas.

It’s clear that Mozart knew what frame of mind was conducive to his inspiration and it also seems he knew what situations would create this frame of mind.

The question then is; did Mozart not set a mental intention to write a new work of music prior to his inspiration?

Making his living as a composer it’s hard to believe that such thoughts didn’t cross his mind.

Did he think; ‘I want to write a new symphony,’ and then release this intention by deliberately turning his thoughts elsewhere, trusting that his inspiration would come?

Thus we come to the first lesson of Inspiration On Demand which is that the word demand, in this context in a misnomer.

You ‘demand’ things from Spirit by allowing them.

“…when we’re inspired, it’s because we’re back in-Spirit, fully awake to the Spirit within us. It was in-Spirit that our purpose was laid out, and it’s in-Spirit where our magnificence is absolute and irrefutable.” Dr. Wayne Dyer

Here is a passage from Deepak Chopra‘s book The Book of Secrets that relates to inspiration;

“When Mozart wanted to compose a new symphony, his intention called up the necessary brain function. It would be absurd to say that Mozart’s brain wanted to write a symphony first and produced messenger molecules to inform him of the fact. Awareness always comes first, and its projections, both objective and subjective, follow.

This brings us to a new principle that is crucially important, called ‘simultaneous interdependent co-arising.’ Simultaneous because one thing doesn’t cause another. Interdependent because each aspect is coordinated with every other. Co-arising because every separate part comes from the same source.

When Mozart wanted to compose a symphony, everything associated with his creation happened simultaneously: the idea, the notes, the sound in his head, the necessary brain activity, the signals to his hands as they wrote the music down. All these ingredients were organized into one experience, and they arose together. It would be false to say that one caused the other.

If one element should fall out of place, the whole project would collapse. Should Mozart get depressed, his emotional state will block the music. Should he get physically exhausted, fatigue will block the music. One can think of a hundred ways that disorder could disrupt the picture: Mozart could have marital problems, a stroke or heart attack, a sudden artistic block, or the noisy distration of a two-year-old in the haouse.

 Creation is kept from anarchy by simultaneous co-arising”

Deepak Chopra has been speaking, in this part of the book, about how evolution takes quantum leaps instead of incremental trials and errors as most people believe. He sights, as examples, how mankind developed a cerebral cortex, giving him the ability to read, long before he had developed writing. He also writes about how certain trees that get over foraged by animals in one locality will send signals to trees in another area and these trees will begin to produce a toxic substance that protects them.

He also writes about the messenger molecules in our cells that trigger certain cells to die off so we are not born with tails.

The conclusion that he seems to be drawing is that the universe is all one consciousness and changes and evolution are directed by a conscious intent that causes this ‘simultaneous interdependent co-arising,’ rather than relying upon a fixed chain of events falling into just the right order and place.

As it relates to inspiration we see that, first there is intention. Mozart intends to write a symphony first. He is supported by the belief system that he can write a symphony. He has a strong belief in himself as a great composer, so this total awareness of intent with belief brings about the simultaneous interdependent co-arising needed to produce a symphony.

If there was only the ability to work a pen, hear notes and even play music, this would not guarantee that these elements would all come together to create a symphony with out the awareness of an intention to do so on Mozart’s part.

What Deepak Chopra has described is quite historically accurate. Mozart was known to be able to produce a work on demand, for hire or for a particular occasion and was highly skilled at adjusting his creations to whatever style he thought or intended was needed.