GENERAL SUMMARY ~ Ernest Holmes
(Continued from April 30th)
"The only concentration necessary in the best use of Mind is specific mental attention and complete mental acceptance. Always remember that you are not dealing with a reluctant Force but with a completely receptive one which, by Its very nature, is compelled to receive the images of your thought. It has no other choice and can conceive no other. You make up Its mind for It.
Acceptance and realization. These words are fraught with the greatest meaning to the one who wishes to consciously use the creative power of thought for definite purposes. Acceptance and realization are mental qualities and may be consciously generated.
When we treat we should be specific. "Whatsoever things we desire" when we pray we should "believe that we have them." If we wish money we should ask for, or mentally accept, money. If we wish a home we should ask for, or mentally accept, a home. We can put as much detail into our mental work as we desire. Sometimes to do so will be of great service in gaining a complete mental acceptance of our desires. This is the whole secret, a complete mental acceptance and embodiment of our desires.
Our mental acceptances should be filled with conviction, warmth, color and imagination. The creative power responds to feeling more quickly than to any other mental attitude. Therefore we should try to feel the reality of what we are doing when we give a treatment. This reality is felt as we become more and more convinced that Spirit responds to us.
We should grow into the understanding that Spirit responds to us and becomes more conscious of Its Presence within us. It is the very breath of our breath...the imagination back of our word. It is the creative power in our thought and the law and energy that executes that thought. "God is all in all, over all and through all." There can be no greater or more complete Allness. This Allness is within us, or we may say that within is the only place we can contact It. It is necessary to understand this else sometimes we shall be trying to reach outside and this is impossible.
If one were to make a complete mental picture of himself as he would like to be, filling in all the details of his desire and trying to accept the whole thing as a present reality, he would soon demonstrate that the control of affairs is from within out and not from without; the cause being that whatever exists as a mental picture in Mind must tend to, and finally does take form if the picture is really believed in and embodied.
We should be careful to distinguish day dreaming and wistful wishing from really dynamic and creative treatment. When we treat we do not wish, we KNOW. We do not dream, we STATE. We do not hope, we ACCEPT. We do not pray, we ANNOUNCE. We do not expect something is going to happen, we BELIEVE THAT IT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED.
We should think clearly and allow the image of our thoughts to sink into a subjective state. We do not crowd them down, we let them sink into this inner receptivity with power and with conviction. Our individual subjective mind is our place in the Universal Creative Law and immediately connects us with limitless power and energy.
There is a vast difference between "holding thoughts" and holding things in thought. One is the attempt at an impossible coercion; the other is a mental acceptance. To hold thoughts, as though we were forcing issues, does no good and utilizes but a fraction of the creative power at our disposal. To hold in thought, as though we were LETTING something happen, is to use the greater power...the greatest power of all."
