December 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
Ernest Holmes

Supply

God is Spirit.  Spirit is Substance and Substance is supply.  This is the keynote to a realization of the more abundant life, to the demonstration of success in financial matters.  It is right that we should be successful, for otherwise the Spirit is not expressed.  The divine cannot lack for anything and we should not lack for anything that makes life worth while here on earth.

Everything that we do should be a success and we should be led to do those things which are constructive and worth while.  To bring a realization of the Presence of the Spirit into all our acts is to prove that God is all - even in the slightest things which we undertake.  Nothing is great and nothing is small to the divine, so we should never wonder if what we are going to do will be hard or easy.  God knows no hard and no easy.

A treatment after this manner should prove the law of abundance in the life of those who use such statements, and believe in them:

"I am surrounded by pure Spirit, by God, the Living Spirit.  My thought is God thought, and it is the law unto that thing where unto it is spoken.  Everything that I do shall be a success.  I am led, guided and inspired by the Living Spirit of Love and of right action.  I am compelled to move in the right direction and to always know what to do, where, and how to do it.

"I am surrounded by right action.  I am filled with the consciousness of right action.  Right action is success in all that I undertake to do.  I am successful in all my undertakings, and I am compensated for all my efforts.  I am surrounded by Substance, which is always taking the form of supply and always manifesting Itself to me in the form of whatever my need may be at the time.

"I always have an abundance of money and an abundance of whatever it takes to make life happy and opulent.  There is a continuous movement toward me of supply, of money, of all that I need to express the fullest life, happiness and action.

"I have an inner understanding of my place in the Universe.  I know that it is unique.  The Divine has not incarnated in anyone else in just the same individual way that It has in me.  I am unique and forever individualized.  Therefore, I do not need to imitate anyone or to long for the good that belongs to another.  All good is now mine and is now manifest in my experience.  I do not compete with anyone, for I am and remain forever myself.  This self is united with all selves, but is always an individual and a unique self.

"There is that in me which all people recognize as worth while and desirable, and everyone whom I meet loves this self of mine and recognizes its worth.  I draw all toward me and those whom I can benefit and those who can benefit me are irresistibly drawn toward me.  I do not strain, will or coerce.  I know.  The Truth makes me free from the fear of poverty or bondage, and emancipates me from the thought of limitation.  I see that money, like everything else that is desirable, must be a spiritual idea, and I know that I have this idea right in my mind at this moment.  I shall always have this idea of abundance.  It is mine and I take it.

"The opportunity for self-expression and compensation is always open to me and I am at all times compelled to know, accept and operate upon this opportunity.  I have abundance because I am abundance.  'All that the Father hath is mine.'"

November 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

I Am Complete in Thee

Almighty God, Everlasting Good, Spirit, Maker of all things and Keeper of my Life, Thou art All.

Infinite Presence within, in Whom all live; Joy Supreme, flooding all with gladness, I adore Thee.

Eternal Peace, undisturbed and quiet, I feel Thy calm.

O Thou Who dost inhabit Eternity and dost dwell within all Creation, Who Dost live through all things and in all people, hear Thou my prayer.

I would enter Thy gates with joy and live at peace in Thy House.

I would find a resting place in Thee, and in Thy presence live.

Make me to do Thy will and from Thy wisdom teach me the ways of Truth.

Compel me to follow Thee and let me not pursue the paths of my own counsel.

O Eternal and Blessed Presence, illumine my mind and command my will that my Soul may be refreshed and that my life may be renewed.

As deep cries unto deep, so my thought cries unto Thee and Thou dost answer.

I am renewed and refreshed; my whole being responds to Thy love, and I am complete in Thee.

All my ways are guarded and guided, and I shall live with Thee eternally.

O Lover of my Soul and Keeper of my Spirit, none can separate us, for we are One.

So shall Thy Wisdom guide me, Thy Presence dwell within me, Thy Love keep me and
Thy Life envelop me now and forevermore.

I rest in Thee.

September 11 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

No Delays

There are no delays in the Divine Plan for me.

Nothing can hinder the operation of this Law unto my Life and Action.

Obstructions are removed from my path, and I now enter into the

realization and manifestation of complete fulfillment.

I do not have to wait, for the Law waits upon me at every turn in Life's road.

Now it is done unto me.

No Delays

There are no delays in the Divine Plan for humanity.

Nothing can hinder the operation of this Law unto our Life and Action.

Obstructions are removed from our path, and WE now enter into the

realization and manifestation of complete fulfillment.

We do not have to wait, for the Law waits upon us at every turn in Life's road.

Now it is done unto All of Us.

July 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS

By Ernest Holmes

Abundance Is My Inheritance

"Abundance is mine.  I cannot be deprived of my supply.  The trees do not lack for leaves, nor do the flowers fail to bloom.  Am I not as important as they?  "Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin, yet...Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these."

I look at the lavish wastefulness of Nature and know that God intended me to be as abundantly supplied, with everything that makes for beauty, well-being, progressive living and happiness.  I, myself, am to blame when these "fruits of the Spirit" fail to appear.

Since I know the Truth of my being.  I will no longer hinder or retard my good from coming to me.  I will expect and accept all that I need to make life happy and worth while; for I am a child of the Spirit, and every attribute of It - every attribute of Good - is my inheritance.

Nothing but lack of faith can keep my good from me, for I am one with the Universal Essence of Life, or Spirit, and Its Substance will manifest in my experience as I believe.  No longer will I go for my good, carrying only a dipper to be filled.  This day, as I turn to the Father within, I bring "all the empty vessels" knowing they will be filled, and my abundance will become manifest."

Abundance Is My Inheritance

July 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM THE TEACHING OF JESUS
By Ernest Holmes

God Can Only Give Us What We Take

"God cannot give us anything unless we are in a mental condition to receive the gift.  The Law cannot do anything for us unless it does it through us.  Belief is absolutely necessary to right demonstration.

We are on the path of experience, just waking to the real fact of our true being; as we awake, we find we are surrounded by many false conditions, but there is something within which remembers the real state.  If one will sit in quiet contemplation of good, as an inner experience, he will experience the good which he contemplates.  He can do this only as he turns from that which is evil and dwells on the good alone.  The Universe will not be divided.

The Universe Holds Nothing Against Us

The Universe holds nothing against us.  No matter how many mistakes we have made, we are still perfect beings within, and the within may become the without, if we will carefully train ourselves to listen to the inner voice of truth which speaks to us in our moments of quietness and solitude.

There is nothing in the Universe that wishes evil to anyone.  Indeed, it is only as we experience good that God is expressed through us.  The more completely we realize good, happiness and success, the more perfectly do we express God and the more of God do we become, that is, the more does God become personified through us.

As the prodigal returns to his father's house, so must we return, not with a morbid mind, but consciously and definitely, with direct intent and a complete concentration of purpose.  The journey back should be fraught with happiness and joyful expectation for we shall be met with a smile from the Universe and shall be folded in the arms of love forever.

The Eternal Completion

Substance and supply exist eternally in the Father's House; health, happiness and success are native to the Heavenly Home, and God Himself shall be our Host.  More we could not ask, more could not be given than that which has been given from the foundations of the Universe.

Discord, misery, and unhappiness are the result of a misuse of our true nature, the result of ignorance.  Ignorance of the law excuses no one from its effects; but knowledge clothes us in the seamless robe, while wisdom puts the ring of completion on our finger and understanding feeds us with the fat of the land.

No one who has tried this has failed; it would be impossible to do so.  If any have thought they have failed, let them realize that somewhere they have fallen short of the divine calling.  The Truth cannot fail, for it is God, the Absolute and Unconditioned One, who is the Truth.

Let us no longer fight the old; let us no longer remember that we were once on the outer rim; let us forget the past and live in the eternal present of God's happy smile.  Today is good; tomorrow will be even better, and that vista of tomorrows that stretches down the bright eternities of an endless future will all be good, for the nature of Reality cannot change."

July 6 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

Definite Plan

"We will say there are four men, "A", "B", "C", and "D".  "A" receives $15.00 a week; "B" receives $50.00; "C" receives $75.00; and "D" receives $100.00.  Suppose these four men are all without positions and each comes to a practitioner for mental treatment to obtain employment.  Please do not think this is a material presentation of a spiritual truth for in the last analysis, in our philosophy, the Universe is either all matter or It is all Spirit.  If it is all matter, what we formerly called matter is Spirit.  If the Universe is all Spirit, what we used to call Spirit is matter.  The Spiritual Universe should no longer be divided against Itself.  The Bhagavad-Gita says that we shall never arrive at peace while we deal with the Pairs of Opposites.  Let us not say that fifteen dollars is material and the Lord's Prayer is spiritual.  Even in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread," and He had already told them they would receive as much bread as they expected.  He did not say what the size of the loaf would be.

These four men are all without positions, as we have said, and they come to a practitioner for mental treatment.  The practitioner takes the thought that there is nothing but activity.  He heals the belief in inactivity and declares that each one of these men is divinely active, occupied and compensated.  Without question he has set a law in motion which will produce something for each of these four.  We will suppose that his treatment is a good and an effective one.  They accept it and consequently each finds a position.  As a result probably "A" will receive $15.00 again; "B" $50.00; "C" $75.00; and "D" $100.00 per week.

"But," one might say, "the practitioner spoke the same word for each, why did they not all receive $100.00 per week?"  Because the Law says that we can have only WHAT WE CAN TAKE.  The practitioner's word was used for each in like manner but each could receive only his fill - only his mental capacity to comprehend.  He can have more, but how is he to get it?  Will a pint dipper ever hold more than a pint?  One might build up the edge and rim of the dipper somewhat and make it hold more and more, so one can continuously increase his consciousness.  It is just the old law that we can expand the finite but we cannot contract the Infinite.

Each man, "A", "B", "C", and "D" was full and no doubt running over when he received a position as a result of the treatment; but the positions they received, the molds which their perceptions of life had provided, were limited to the subjective remembrance already set in motion by themselves.  Each attracted to himself, out of the Universal Good, that which he could comprehend.  It is the old statement again that water will reach its own level by its own weight and without effort.  So a treatment will level itself in the objective world at the level of the subjective thought and realization which projects and receives it.

This does not mean that each of the above stated men will always have to receive the same compensation, for with an enlarged consciousness each might receive more.  There is nothing in the nature of finality about this because the man whose consciousness is now bringing him a smaller thing or a less important thing (we name it big and little and to us it is big or little), can if he so desires conceive the bigger thing, the more important position.  The same prayer answers the big and the little.

A man does not suddenly become affluent because he sits around and thinks, "I am a multi-millionaire."  But when he thinks affluently he does begin to demonstrate prosperity."

June 27 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM THE TEACHING OF JESUS
~ Ernest Holmes

The Father's House Always Open

"And so the son found everything in the Father's House just as he had left it.  Nothing had changed and he was made welcome to all the divine stores.  But he had to return to find joy and peace forevermore.  How wonderful is Reality!  While we may have seemed to be away from it, it has ever remained the same and is ever ready to reveal itself to us.  All we have to do is to go half way; that is, turn to it and it will turn to us.  The Truth known is instantly demonstrated; for the Truth is Changeless Reality and cannot come and go.  No matter how long we may have been away from Reality in our thought, It is always here, ready to spring forth, full-orbed, into expression.  No matter how long a room may have been darkened, the entrance of light instantly illuminates it.  What becomes of the darkness when the light enters?  Where did it come from and where does it go?

It is difficult to comprehend such an infinite possibility as an instantaneous reconciliation with the universe; we demonstrate this only in degrees, because our consciousness is not yet fitted to perceive the wholeness of complete perfection.

The Stay-at-Home Son

"Now his elder son was in the field:  and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.
"And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.  And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.
"And he was angry and would not go in:  therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
"And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee...and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends...
"And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."

How human the stay-at-home son was, and what a theological attitude he took in regard to his younger brother!  He had not entered himself and he was not willing that anyone else should enter.  His real attitude was that God should condemn everything that he, himself, did not like or believe.  He was puffed  up with self-righteousness and personal conceit, filled with petty vanity, and fuming with anger over his brother's welcome home.  I expect that we meet him in ourselves nearly every day - in our personal experiences with other people - in our intolerant attitude and uncharitableness toward others who do not think as we think.  But God knows as little about self-righteousness as He knows about evil, for both are false; therefore, He said unto the elder son, "Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."  This implies that the elder son had missed the mark as well as the younger, for he had been living in the midst of plenty and had not recognized it.  He needed but to have asked and he would have received all that the father had.  Both sons were foolish but it is a question which was the more completely deluded.

The Application of the Story

But to bring this story down to our own experience -for it is a lesson for everyone for all time - we live in the midst of eternal good, but it can only be to us what we believe it to be.  We are at the mouth of the river, but we must let down our own buckets if we wish them to be filled with the pure waters of Reality.

We are surrounded by a Spirit of living Intelligence, and eternal givingness, love, goodness and power, that wishes to express Itself through us.  There is Divine Urge within, ever pushing us forward to the goal.  We are also surrounded by an immutable Law of cause and effect, and because of our divine individuality and the necessity of experience in order to come to a realization of what, and who, we are, we are subject to the causes which we have set in motion.  All is love and yet all is law.  Both love and law are perfect and we, as individuals, can experience only what we really believe and act upon."

June 24 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

"Why is it that Jesus could say to the paralyzed man, "Take up thy bed and walk"?  Because Jesus knew when he said this that the man would get up and walk.  HE NOT ONLY BELIEVED THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING TO RESPOND TO HIM BUT HE HAD AN EQUIVALENT OF ITS RESPONSE, which is just as necessary.

The Law is Infinite and Perfect but in order to make a demonstration WE MUST HAVE A MENTAL EQUIVALENT OF THE THING WE DESIRE.  A demonstration, like anything else in the objective life, is born out of a mental concept.  The mind is the fashioning factor, and according to its range, vision and positiveness, will be the circumstance or experience.  For example:  If one sees only unloveliness in others, it is because unloveliness is a strong element in himself.  The light he throws on others is generated in his own soul and he sees them as he chooses to see them.  He holds constantly in his mind a mental equivalent of unloveliness and creates unlovely reactions toward himself.  He is getting back what he is sending out.  If a man believes himself to be a failure and that it is useless for him to try to be anything else, he carries with him the mental equivalent of failure.  So he succeeds in being a failure according to law.  This is his demonstration.   Having a strong picture or mental concept, and holding to that equivalent regardless of circumstances or condition, we must sooner or later manifest according to the concept.

It follows, then, that the range of our possibilities at the present time does not extend far beyond the range of our present concepts.  As we bring ourselves to a greater vision, we induce a greater concept and thereby demonstrate more in our experience.  In this way there is a continuous growth and unfoldment taking place.  We do not expect to give a treatment today, for prosperity, and have a million dollars tomorrow.  But little by little we can unfold our consciousness, through the acquisition of greater and still greater mental equivalents, until at last we shall be made free.

The way to proceed is to begin right where we are.  It is not scientific to attempt to begin somewhere else.  One who understands the systematic use of the Law will understand that he is where he is because of what he is, but he will not say, "I must remain where I am, because of what I am."  Instead he will begin to disclaim what he appears to be.  As his statements release wrong subjective tendencies, providing in their place a correct concept of life and Reality, he will automatically be lifted out of his condition; impelling forces sweeping everything before them, will set him free, if he trusts in Spirit and the working of the Law.

Stay with the One and never deviate from It, never leave It for a moment.  Nothing else can equal this attitude.  TO DESERT THE TRUTH IN THE HOUR OF NEED IS TO PROVE THAT WE DO NOT KNOW THE TRUTH.  When things look the worst, that is the supreme moment to demonstrate, to ourselves, that there are no obstructions to the operation of Truth.  When things look the worst is the best time to work, the most satisfying time.  The person who can throw himself with a complete abandon into that Limitless Sea of Receptivity, having cut loose from all apparent moorings, is the one wo will always receive the greatest reward."

April 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL and SPIRITUAL TREATMENT

Ernest Holmes

Treatment:  What It Is

"Effective mental treatment is propelled by a consciousness of love and a realization that the Creative Spirit is always at work.  The practitioner does not feel that he must compel the Force to work.  It is the nature of the Creative Power to take form, and it is the nature of man to use It.

A treatment should be given a calm, expectant manner and with a deep inner conviction of its reality, without any fear or any sense that the human mind must make it effective. The work is effective because the Law is always in operation.

The Purpose of Treatment

Mental or spiritual treatment should bring into actual manifestation the health and happiness which are mankind's normal and divine heritage.  Such healing includes the emancipation of the mind from every form of bondage through a new concept of God, which causes the heart to beat with joy and gladness.  This healing power is a consciousness of the Unity of all Life and the spiritual nature of all being.  Man's life is rooted in the Universal and the Eternal, which life is none other than the Life of God.  The healing process, in so far as it may be termed a process, is in becoming conscious of this eternal truth.

Treatment should incorporate a conscious recognition that health has always been ours, abundance has always been ours, happiness and peace have always been ours; they are ours now, for they are the very essence and Truth of our being.  All there is of evil, of whatever name or kind is an inversion of eternal good."