Inspiration is breathing in, as in inhalation. Drawing in the wind of creative spirit is like drawing breath down into the lungs. The Japanese speak of fu-in, “wind inspiration”.

Aspiration is breathing upon, blowing, panting after something. To aspire is to send out the breath of soul.

Etymology, as in these examples, can be quite inspiring.

In his spiritual classic, The Quest of the Oversoul, Paul Brunton suggested that the optimal condition for inspiration is “self-forgetfulness through complete concentration.” Inspiration is what we can breathe in when we clear the ordinary self and its preoccupations out of the passages, and open to something beyond all that clutter. This can lead to that blessed flow state we all aspire to, when we are awakened and conscious. It can be invited, but not programmed or controlled. As Brunton observed:

Man is capable of connected thought but not of connected inspiration. The genius who struggles to give birth to great things lives fitfully, warring sporadically with his own self, sometimes blocking and unconsciously interfering with the inspiration which woos him.

When we are truly inspired, we can become vehicles for fresh creation that comes to us whole and complete. Brunton maintained that “all inspired work is delivered to us whole and complete before even the first movement of hand or head has been made.”

As a book writer, I must pause for a few deep breaths, because although I know exactly what this means in the inception of a new book, I also remember that bringing through what may be complete on some other level of reality may be a long and bumpy process, requiring perspiration as well as inspiration.

Aspiration, in contrast to inspiration, means sending out the breath of your wishes and yearnings. I think of how, when we still wrote letters the old-fashioned way, some of us might breathe on the envelope to send love to a loved one or in the hope that our missive would bring happy results.

I am cheered by Brunton’s confidence that when we truly aspire, we mobilize a response from invisible helpers:

To send out repeatedly into the universe a silent or vocal call, desire or yearning for spiritual truth, peace or guidance is to set stirring into action certain intelligent forces that exist in the universe and that ultimately respond, in exact proportion to the degree of intensity of the aspiration. The universe is not a blindly working machine, but a garment worn by a hierarchy of conscious intelligent beings.

Action plan, for any day: breathe in, breathe out, and be conscious of what you are calling in and sending out.