It is well that we speak more of Our Dear Unknown Friendโs fundamental principle of the Hermetic Path, that is, โConcentration without effortโ, of which he writes:
โConcentration, as the faculty of fixing maximum attention on a minimum amount of space (Schiller said that he who wants to complete something of worth and of skill, โder sammle still und unerschlafft, im kleinsten Punkt die grรถsste Kraftโ, i.e. that โquietly and unceasingly he directs the greatest force upon the smallest pointโ), is the practical key to all success in every domain.
Modern pedagogy and psychotherapy, schools of prayer and spiritual exercises โ Franciscan, Carmelite, Dominican and Jesuit โ occult schools of every type and, lastly, ancient Hindu yoga, all approaches are in agreement about this.โ
It is worth noting and itโs importance cannot be understated in regards to the understanding of Man as image of God, that when one is in that state of deep concentration of which we all have had glimpses of especially when engaged in the performance of a well and long trained skill (Tomberg later uses the example of a tightrope walker performing his craft, a possible allusion to saying that the spiritual life is as the walking on a knife-edge), that there is nothing of a process of sequential reasoning, there is no conscious thought process that takes into account the multiple and varying elements involved in the skill.
No, this would only result in the tightrope walker falling from their rope.
Instead what we experience is a trance-like state, an effortlessness where the skill seems almost to โperform itselfโ.
We do not focus on each element of the skill individually thinking on the role each plays and how they work together with each other to accomplish the task.
That is the domain of theory.
What is required is concentration without effort. A drawing together of the many elements involved that they might be focused and unified in the eye of the heart.
This is not a process of mental cognition but a simple act of the Spirit.
The performance of the art then occurs with a rhythmic ease, as the breath of the body, which can be consciously controlled yet is usually given charge to the interior intelligence of the body.
How does this relate to man as image of God?
This simple act of binding together seemingly unrelated and mundane elements by way of a higher principle, focusing them into to an Art or Craft; a New Creation, that speaks and even participates in the reality of that higher principle, is precisely what needs be understood by the term โimageโ or โsymbolโ.
The word โsymbolโ itself refers to a โthrowing togetherโ, seemingly a paradox, for when we throw multiple things from our hand they are scattered, (and here we should especially take the casting or throwing of lots as a helpful example) and lose their apparent unity. However, there is an invisible and higher principle that binds the scattered lots together providing them with a purpose not possible had they remained in the hand.
Here at last we find Man as image of God!
Made of the dust of the earth, all that is the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom is found in him, a concentration of all the elements of creation through living soul, bound by the very Word of God.
Jesus Christ as Word of God, the Son, the image of the Father, says โHe who hath seen me hath seen the Father.โ
He is the perfect symbol of the Father, so that they are in fact in perfect union, one God together with the Holy Ghost. And we as the Body of Christ, now images of the image of God. Perfect image and likeness of God through Christ.
Maybe somewhat of a digression but not unrelated.
But again to concentration without effort; keeping all that has been said in mind we may see that when engaged in this higher state of consciousness, this focusing of disparate elements, binding them to a higher principle and giving birth to an Art, a New Creation, the intellect, the eye of the heart, is realised as itself the image of Christ in man.
