December 31 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
Ernest Holmes

Final Conclusion

In conclusion, what the world needs is spiritual conviction, followed by spiritual experience.  I would rather see a student of this Science prove its Principle than to have him repeat all the words of wisdom that have ever been uttered.  It is far easier to teach the Truth than it is to practice It.

But the practice of Truth is personal to each, and in the long run no one can live our life for us.  To each is given what he needs and the gifts of heaven come alike to all.  How we shall use these gifts is all that matters!  To hold one's thought steadfastly to the constructive, to that which endures, and to the Truth, may not be easy in a rapidly changing world, but to the one who makes the attempt much is guaranteed.

The essence of spiritual mind healing - and of all true religious philosophy - is an inner realization of the Presence of Perfection within and around about.  It is the hope of heaven, the Voice of God proclaiming:  "I am that which thou art; thou art that which I am."

December 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS FROM the NEW TESTAMENT
Ernest Holmes

Evil is Created by Man (James 1:13)

"Very emphatically the writer tells us that God never tempts any man.  He says that God cannot be tempted and that all temptation is from our own minds.  It could not be stated more plainly.  Evil is man created, while God - the Eternal Goodness - knows nothing about it.  He is too pure to behold evil and cannot look upon it.  Evil is the direct and suppositional opposite to good, and has no reality behind it, or actual law to come to its support.  GOD TEMPTS NO MAN.  It is a mistake to say that God tries us to see if we are fit to enter the kingdom of heaven.  God tries no man.

We make our own mistakes, suffer from our own foolishness and we must also make our own return journey into righteousness. God was, is and will remain, the Essence of Life, Truth and Purity.  Let us enter this Essence in belief and be freed from our unbelief and human mistakes.

All goodness and every good gift cometh from the Father of light.  Darkness has no father, but is an illegitimate child of superstition and unbelief, having no parentage in Reality.  The Universe is not divided against Itself.  The good teacher said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

There is no shadow or turning in the Truth.  It is just what It is, and there can be nothing either added to or taken from It.  It is One and never two.  We enter the One through a consciousness of unity with It.

Doers of the Word (James 1:22, 27)

"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."  This should teach us not to make idle talk about our understanding.  What we know, we can do.  What we cannot do, we only suppose...we only think we know.  Unused knowledge is suppositional and unreal; it is an assumption and as such, never produced anything.  Not everyone who says Lord, Lord, but those who do the will of Truth, enter in.

But we deceive ourselves when we boast about our understanding, and are unable to prove that we possess any!  A silent conviction is worth more than the loudest proclamation from the housetops of those who shout affirmations to the great nowhere.  An ounce of conviction is worth many pounds of affirmation. 

Pure religion manifests itself through acts of kindness and mercy.  It is not arrogant - claiming a front seat in heaven - but it is humble before the great Whole.  It unifies with all humanity and finds no great difference between saint and sinner.  Such a religion as this, the world of today needs, for it is sick of pretense and would like a practical demonstration of a belief in God, made manifest through good works.

The Law Is No Respecter of Persons (James 2:1-11)

James speaks of being convinced of the law as transgressors.  He does not say that God is convinced we are transgressors, but that the law is convinced.  This passage is filled with meaning.  God is natural Goodness, Eternal Freedom, and pure Loving-kindness.  But the Law is a cold, hard fact, returning to each the result of his own acts, be they false or true.  The Law is a neutral, but an intelligent, force - a doer and not a knower.  All law is of the same nature.

When we do wrong, the law punishes  When we do right, it rewards.  Everything is according to law and order; this is the only way the universe could function.  If our thought is of God, or Good, we shall be using the Law in the right way.  When our thoughts and acts are opposed to God, or Good, we transgress and are punished.  "There is no sin but a mistake and no punishment but a consequence."  In like manner, Emerson tells us "there is no sin but ignorance," and this is true, for if we knew the Truth, we should not misuse the law.

The law is no respecter of persons and will bring good or evil to any, according to his use or misuse of it.  It will be a law of freedom to the righteous and one of bondage to those who misuse it.  We cannot escape from the creative power of our thought and there is no use in trying to do so.  All we need to do is to use the law from the right motive, then we shall be made free."

December 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS FROM the NEW TESTAMENT
Ernest Holmes

Constant Prayer

""Pray without ceasing."  This means to be always on the affirmative side of life.  To pray without ceasing is to doubt never, but to always trust in the Law of Good.  This inner communion is essential to the soul and natural to the mind.  It is a constant recognition of our relationship to that Presence in which we live and move and have our being.

"In everything gives thanks."  An attitude of gratitude is most salutary, and bespeaks the realization that we are now in heaven.  How we love to do for those who co-operate with, and are grateful for, our small endeavors!  Gratitude is one of the chief graces of human existence and is crowned in heaven with a consciousness of unity.

Quench Not the Spirit

"Quench not the Spirit."  We are not to be ashamed of our trust in God, nor are we to deny the Inner Light that lights every man's reason to the ultimate reason of all.  Spiritual emotion is common to all people, and is one of the ways through which the Spirit works.  When this emotion is blocked, it hinders the currents of life from flowing and the result is stagnation.  In psychology, we learn that congested emotions are disastrous to health.  If this is true of the physical emotions, how much more must it be true of those higher emotions which are altogether spiritual!

What is true on one plane is true on all.  There are ascending scales of being, and each reproduces from the lowest to the highest, each plane partaking of the nature of the Whole, since all are in, and of It.  If physical emotions unexpressed, can congest the subjective thought, producing mental and physical confusion - and they can - it follows that unexpressed spiritual emotions can congest the soul and hinder a more complete flow of life through the individual.  This is in accordance with Law.

If the artist suppressed all spiritual emotion, he would never be a great artist.  In art, we call this emotion temperament; in oratory, we call it inspiration; and in purely spiritual things, we call it illumination. Somewhere the soul must stand naked to the Truth, if it is to receive It in all Its fullness.  There must be an outlet as well as an inlet, if there is to be a continual flow.  "Quench not the Spirit," but let the intellect decide to what the emotions are to respond.  This is the secret of a well-balanced life.

"Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good."  We are not to be afraid of strange ideas or doctrines, but are to prove them and accept only that which is true.  We are to analyze, dissect and investigate until we know the Truth and then hold fast to It.  In this way, all advance must come, whether in science, philosophy, religion or anything else.

Ask in Faith, Believing (James 1:5-18)

If we lack wisdom, we are to come to the Source of all knowledge and we shall receive it.  But how are we to ask?  In faith, believing.  A double-minded man gets nowhere.  How true this is!  GOD CAN GIVE US ONLY WHAT WE TAKE, and since the taking is a mental act,  WE CAN TAKE ONLY WHAT WE BELIEVE WE ALREADY HAVE!  This is in accord with the teachings of Jesus: that when we pray, we must believe we already have the answer to our prayer.

Anything that is not of faith is sin, or a mistake, as we are told in another passage of this book of wisdom.  Faith in God and in ourselves should be consciously generated.  All trouble comes from disbelief in the Universe, followed by wrong acts, which are the result of disbelief and ignorance of the Law of Good, which is a Law of Liberty.

The lesson is simple enough.  When we ask for anything, we are to believe that we have it, but we are to ask for that which is in unity with life.  This unity includes health, happiness and success.  These are native to the atmosphere of God and to the atmosphere of the inner man, which is Christ.  Let us dislodge doubt, fear and unbelief and trust implicitly in Good."

December 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS FROM the NEW TESTAMENT
Ernest Holmes

The Mind That Jesus Used (Phil. 2:5, 6, 13)

"We are to let the mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus.  Note carefully the manner in which the expression is used.  The mind which was in Christ Jesus.  This means the Mind of God.  Not our personal mind - marvelous as this is with its different ramifications - but the mind which Jesus used:  the Divine Mind of the Creator and Ruler of the universe.

To have the same mind that Jesus used, implies a power which is available to all and may be used by all.  The mind which was in Christ Jesus was the Mind of Truth; hence, he became the way.  But we are also to become the way, and this can be accomplished only when we use the same mind that he used, which is the Mind of God.

We have the Mind of Christ in such degree as we trust implicitly in the Universe, and no longer do those things which contradict the fundamental goodness.  From this Mind, proceeds the perfect Law, which is the Law of Liberty.

This Mind is God working in and through us.  God can work for us only by working through us.  Consequently, there is no other name under heaven whereby a man may be saved - not the name of Jesus, but the Mind of Christ.  The individual is thrown back upon himself and upon the Universe.  Every man has the Mind of Christ, if he will admit it, but he can use this Mind only when he is in harmony with Life!  Nature always guards herself against any undue approaches and the righteous alone may enter the portals of Truth.

A Pattern for Thought (Phil. 4:8, 13)

We are to think on those things which are of good report.  That is, we are to think on those things which are of the Truth.  If we do this, we can accomplish because of our own inner mind, which is Christ.  This Mind is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all they that dwell therein.

And God will supply all our needs.  This is a beautiful thought:  that we are fed from the table of the Universe, Whose board is ever spread with blessedness and peace; Whose loving-kindness has never been fathomed; Whose grace and truth are the cornerstones of Reality.  WE ARE TO BE FED, CLOTHED, AND SUPPLIED IN EVERY NEED, STRAIGHT FROM THE CENTER AND SOURCE OF ALL.  More than this, we could not ask.  Greater, could not be given.  Lowell tells us that "Heaven alone is given away," and all is ours for the asking.  Shall not this asking, then, include all righteousness and truth?

Rejoice Evermore (I Thess. 5:15-23)

We are to rejoice evermore.  There is no sadness in the Spirit.  It is happy and free, for It knows neither depression nor confusion, and we belong to It, are in and of It.  We are to rejoice evermore."

December 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
Ernest Holmes

"The great mystics like Jesus have taught that as we consciously enter into the One, the One enters into, and becomes us.  While sensing this Unity, they have also sensed the individualization of Being and the individuality of man as a Divine Reality.

In flashes of illumination, the inspired have seen into the very center of Reality.  They have been convinced of immortality now; of God as personal to the individual; of the inevitable overcoming of all evil by good.  In such degree as we become conscious of God, evil disappears.

Man is Universal on the subjective side of life, and in this way is connected with the subjectivity of all with whom he is in harmonious vibration.  Mental suggestion operates through the subjective mind, and a silent influence is always going on through this avenue in the form of race-suggestion.  A silent communication takes place at all times between friends, on the subjective side of life; when it comes to the surface, when one receives a clear impression of thought without the use of words, it is called mental telepathy.

Telepathy, which is the act of reading subjective thought, takes place through the medium of Universal Subjectivity.  In order to mentally receive a message, and bring it to the surface, one must be in tune with the vibration of that message.  Since the whole field of subjectivity is Universal, it follows that everything which has ever been thought, said or done, is retained in the race-thought; and since this field is a unity, all of the vibrations are ever-present and may be contacted at the point of anyone's mentality.  In his objective state, man is separate and distinct, but on the subjective side of life he is Universal.

Each maintains a stream of consciousness in the One Mind, and anyone contacting this stream may objectify it.  Because of the Universality of the Medium, the individual stream of consciousness is always omnipresent, whether the one from whom it emanated be in the flesh or out of it.  Time and space are unknown in Mind...the past and the present are one.  Everyone who has ever lived has left behind a mental picture of himself.  These pictures are often seen when one is in a subjective state.  This does not mean that we really see the person; what we see, generally, is the picture."

December 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
Ernest Holmes

"The mystical conception of Christ is an idea of the Universality of Sonship, embodied in any individual who recognizes this Sonship.  We comprehend the Infinite only to the degree that It expresses Itself through us, becoming to us that which we believe It to be.  We cannot come unto the "Father Which Art in Heaven" except through our own spiritual nature.  As the human gives way to the Divine in a person he becomes the Christ.  There is One Father of All.  This One Father, conceiving within Himself, gives birth to all the Divine ideas.  The sum-total of all these ideas constitutes the Mystic Christ.  This profound truth Jesus discovered and taught:  that whatever is true of man, of the reality of his nature, is the Divine Presence within him.  The answer to every question is within man, because man is within Spirit, and Spirit is an Indivisible Whole.  Jesus stands alone as a man who knew himself and realized his relationship to the Perfect Whole.  As the external Jesus gave way to the Divine, the human took on the Christ Spirit and became the Voice of God to humanity.  The Christ is always triumphant, is ever a victor, is never defeated, needs no champion."

December 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
Ernest Holmes

"A mystic is one who intuitively perceives Truth and who without conscious mental process arrives at Spiritual Realization.  The mystics include the great prophets, the inspired writers, the illumined souls of all ages.  What we have received from them constitutes the greatest intellectual and spiritual heritage of the ages.

All the mystics have recognized the absolute unity of God and man.  Within the Infinite Mind each individual exists, not as a separated, but as a separate and distinct entity.  We are a point in Universal Consciousness, which is God.  We are not separated from Life, neither is It separated from us, but we are separate entities in It, individualized centers of God Consciousness.

True mystics have not denied the reality of individuality.  They have all agreed that the soul is on the pathway of experience, of self-discovery; on the way to its Father's House.  They have told us of the marvelous relationship which exists between God and man...of a close Union which cannot be broken.

Since we see that personality is what one does with his individuality, we should turn within, as have all the great mystics who have blessed the world with their presence - we should turn within and FIND GOD; and we should have a sense of a Real Presence when we do turn toward the One and Only Presence in the entire Universe.

One of the most illuminating truths which mysticism has revealed is that there is no ultimate reality to evil.  NO DEVIL, NO DAMNATION OUTSIDE OF ONE'S STATE OF THOUGHT, NO PUNISHMENT OUTSIDE OF THAT SELF-INFLICTED THROUGH IGNORANCE, and no salvation outside of conscious co-operation with the Infinite.  Consequently, they have taught that the answer to every problem is in man's own consciousness. 

It is one thing to say that God is unfolding through His idea of Himself, but quite another thing to say that He is gradually becoming conscious of Himself.  An "unfolding" God implies a forever-out-pouring Spirit and a forever-manifesting Deity.  Evolution is the time and the process through which an idea unfolds to a higher state of manifestation; and since ideas are Divine Realities, evolution will go on forever.  But evolution is an effect of Intelligence and not its cause.  Evolution follows involution.

All emerge from that One Whose Being is ever present and Whose Life, robed in numberless forms, is manifest throughout all Creation.  Creation is the logical result of the outpush of Life into self-expression  It is the coming forth of Spirit into manifestation.  The One encompasses and flows through All, spilling Itself into numberless forms, and personalities.  These forms and personalities, propelled by the Cosmic Urge which brings them into being, have, within themselves, an impulse planted by the Divine; and since the Divine is Limitless and Perfect, It must and ultimately will bring all creation into a state of perfect manifestation.

By Cosmic Consciousness, we mean "One's consciousness of his unity with the Whole."  This is not a mystery, however, but the Self-Knowingness of God through man.  Illumination will come as man more and more realizes his Unity with the whole, and as he constantly endeavors to let the Truth operate through him."