THESE THREE THINGS ARE INVOLVED IN THE ACT OF ADEQUATE ATTENTION IN SEEING ANYTHING DISTINCTLY. Do you wonder that everybody is deficient in the ability to pay attention? It is more necessary to cultivate attention than anything else in the world, more necessary than the ordinary business of living. IT IS ESPECIALLY NECESSARY FOR THE OCCULTIST. There are several ways to cultivate alertness of attention. All of them are good. If you will read the biography of any of the modern magicians, those slight of hand men, you will find that from infancy their power of attention was cultivated by artificial processes. From early childhood they began to cultivate their attention. The way which covers the widest field is to learn to read accurately. In the same way you must cultivate an instrument which will make you transparent to your Higher Self. The instrument for recording sense impressions is the brain. The instrument for receiving the instruction of the Higher Self, which we call intuition, is the PINEAL GLAND. As a general rule your senses work and work accurately, your brain senses work and work accurately, and your brain records what your senses receive, but you are not present at the switchboard to get the message. YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION. The instrument for recording sense impression is the brain and the instrument for receiving the instruction of the Higher Self is the intuition, which comes from the PINEAL GLAND. In the first card of Tarot, THE FOOL, you have the Life Power Depicted. You see on his Robe the ten figures of the Ten Emanations. In the second card of Tarot (the one you are studying now) you see this Power being directed by a human being who has learned how to use it. THE MAGICIAN’S pose is intended to be very significant. It presents a studied effort without any strain whatever. If you look at him carefully, you will see that one hand is putting forth strenuous effort, and the other is relaxed and takes up and distributes the strain. This seems very complex to put it into words, but it is the only way you can accomplish adequacy in anything. You are thoroughly familiar with this experience already. You learn how to do a thing with effort and then you exercise the effort without strain. It is true that you cannot do it competently until you can do it without strain. How could you drive an automobile if you gripped the wheel with intensity, as you did at first?
