SUMMARY of PART ONE: The Nature of Being ~ Ernest Holmes
"There is a Universal Presence that acts as though It were intelligent, and we may assume that It is. There is a Universal Intelligence acting as Law - we may also assume this to be true. There is a formless Stuff in the Universe, forever taking form, and forever changing its form - this we may accept as being self-evident.
We have every reason to postulate a three-fold nature of the Universal Being, which we shall call Spirit, Soul, and Body. We shall think of Spirit as the great Actor, Soul as the Medium of Its action, and Body the result of Its action. We shall think of Spirit as the only Conscious Actor - the Power that knows Itself. We shall think of Soul as a blind Force, obeying the Will of Spirit; and we shall think of Body as the effect of Spirit, working through Law to produce form. We shall assume that neither Law, nor the Stuff from which form comes, has conscious intelligence, but must because of their nature be formed by the Word. This simplifies the whole matter and enables us to see that in the entire Universe, One Power alone really acts - the Power of the Word of Spirit, God, or Universal Conscious Intelligence.
The evolution of man brings him arbitrarily to a place where true individuality functions. From that day, a further evolution must be through his conscious co-operation with Reality. All Nature waits on man's recognition of a co-operation with her laws, and is always ready to obey his will; but man must use Nature's forces in accordance with her law, and in co-operation with her purpose - which is goodness, truth, and beauty - if he wishes to attain self-mastery.
Man never creates; he discovers and uses. Through this method all sciences are evolved. We live in a Universe of Law, through which runs a spirit of self-knowing Intelligence. "All's Love, yet all is Law," mused Robert Browning.
The Law has done all it can automatically do for man. It has evolved him to a point of individuality and must now let him alone to discover the secrets of life for himself. Man is potentially perfect but free-will and self-choice cause him to appear imperfect. In reality all he can destroy is some particular embodiment of himself. The divine spark is always intact in potential man.
Man awakes to self-consciousness, finding himself already equipped with a mentality, a body and an environment. Gradually he discovers one law of nature after another, until he conquers his environment through his knowledge of the nature of those laws. Everywhere he finds that nature does his bidding, in so far as he understands her laws and uses them along the lines of their inherent being. He must first obey nature and she will then obey him.
Man discovers his ability to think and realizes that from within there comes a reaction to his thought. He can think consciously and mental law acts upon his thought; and his physical body is affected by his thinking.
He next discovers that he can think for others, causing corresponding action in and through their bodies. In this way, he discovers a mental medium through which thought operates. He realizes himself to be a thinking center in a Universal Mind.
Man next discovers that his affairs are primarily a thing of thought, and that being able to think for others he can also aid in the control of their affairs. He now realizes that everything in the visible world is an EFFECT; that back of all effects are ideas which are the real Cause of these effects. The Divine Ideas are perfect, but man's freedom of individuality causes them to appear imperfect. Through right thinking, he is able to uncover the appearance of imperfection and reveal the Perfect Idea. "Behold, thou, my face forevermore."
"There is a Universal Presence that acts as though It were intelligent, and we may assume that It is. There is a Universal Intelligence acting as Law - we may also assume this to be true. There is a formless Stuff in the Universe, forever taking form, and forever changing its form - this we may accept as being self-evident.
We have every reason to postulate a three-fold nature of the Universal Being, which we shall call Spirit, Soul, and Body. We shall think of Spirit as the great Actor, Soul as the Medium of Its action, and Body the result of Its action. We shall think of Spirit as the only Conscious Actor - the Power that knows Itself. We shall think of Soul as a blind Force, obeying the Will of Spirit; and we shall think of Body as the effect of Spirit, working through Law to produce form. We shall assume that neither Law, nor the Stuff from which form comes, has conscious intelligence, but must because of their nature be formed by the Word. This simplifies the whole matter and enables us to see that in the entire Universe, One Power alone really acts - the Power of the Word of Spirit, God, or Universal Conscious Intelligence.
The evolution of man brings him arbitrarily to a place where true individuality functions. From that day, a further evolution must be through his conscious co-operation with Reality. All Nature waits on man's recognition of a co-operation with her laws, and is always ready to obey his will; but man must use Nature's forces in accordance with her law, and in co-operation with her purpose - which is goodness, truth, and beauty - if he wishes to attain self-mastery.
Man never creates; he discovers and uses. Through this method all sciences are evolved. We live in a Universe of Law, through which runs a spirit of self-knowing Intelligence. "All's Love, yet all is Law," mused Robert Browning.
The Law has done all it can automatically do for man. It has evolved him to a point of individuality and must now let him alone to discover the secrets of life for himself. Man is potentially perfect but free-will and self-choice cause him to appear imperfect. In reality all he can destroy is some particular embodiment of himself. The divine spark is always intact in potential man.
Man awakes to self-consciousness, finding himself already equipped with a mentality, a body and an environment. Gradually he discovers one law of nature after another, until he conquers his environment through his knowledge of the nature of those laws. Everywhere he finds that nature does his bidding, in so far as he understands her laws and uses them along the lines of their inherent being. He must first obey nature and she will then obey him.
Man discovers his ability to think and realizes that from within there comes a reaction to his thought. He can think consciously and mental law acts upon his thought; and his physical body is affected by his thinking.
He next discovers that he can think for others, causing corresponding action in and through their bodies. In this way, he discovers a mental medium through which thought operates. He realizes himself to be a thinking center in a Universal Mind.
Man next discovers that his affairs are primarily a thing of thought, and that being able to think for others he can also aid in the control of their affairs. He now realizes that everything in the visible world is an EFFECT; that back of all effects are ideas which are the real Cause of these effects. The Divine Ideas are perfect, but man's freedom of individuality causes them to appear imperfect. Through right thinking, he is able to uncover the appearance of imperfection and reveal the Perfect Idea. "Behold, thou, my face forevermore."
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