May 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

A Formula for Effective Prayer (Matt. 21:21, 22) ~ Ernest Holmes

"THE THINGS WE NEED, WE ARE TO ASK FOR - and WE ARE TO BELIEVE THAT WE RECEIVE THEM!  This plumbs the very depths of the metaphysical and psychological law of our being, and explains the possibility of an answer to our prayers.

When we pray we are to believe that we have.  We are surrounded by a universal law which is creative.  It moves from the thought to the thing.  Unless there is first an image, it cannot move, for there would be nothing for it to move toward.  Prayer, which is a mental act, must accept its own answer as an image in mind, before the divine energies can play upon it and make it productive.

As we must plant a seed before we can reap a harvest, so we must believe before our prayers can be answered.  Prayer should reach a point of acceptance, an unqualified and undisputed place of agreement.  Let us take the mental images of our desires to the bosom of the Creative Life, and here make them known by impressing them upon It with positive belief.  If we do this, our prayers will be answered.

But let us remember that true prayer is always universal.  There can be no good to us alone, only as that good is for all.  This does not mean that we are to refrain from asking what we desire, but that we should wish only for that which is good.  For instance, it is good to have a home; it is good for all people to have homes while here on earth; it is right to ask for one, but it would not be right to ask for one belonging to another.

If we wish to pray for a home, we should take the idea of a house with us into the silence and meditate upon its actual being.  We should believe that we have and own a home, but we should leave the idea free to fulfill itself, without any definite choosing of how, where, why or when.  In this way, we pray aright and when we so pray, we pray effectively.  God wills us to have everything.  As we express life, we fulfill God's law of abundance, but we do this only as we realize that there is good enough to go around - only as we know that all of God's gifts are given as freely and fully as the air and the sunshine...alike to all.

The Two Great Commandments (Matt. 22:36-41)

The two great commandments are to love God and our brother man.  On these hang all the law and the prophets.  Love is a complete unity with life, and we cannot enter this state unless we are in unity with all that lives, for all life is One.  To love God alone is not enough, for this would exclude our fellowman.  To love our fellowman alone is not sufficient, for this would be too limited a concept of God.

When we realize that God and man are One and not two, we shall love both.  We shall love man as an expression of God, and God as the Life Principle in all.

From this teaching, we are not to suppose that we are to love that in each other which does not savor of right, we are to love the right alone.  We are to look for God in each other and love this God, forgetting all else.  But would this compel us to accept from people that which is not good?  Of course not!  It is not necessary for one to make a doormat of himself in proving that God is love, for this would be like suffering for righteousness' sake, which is always a mistake.

We should be wise in the ways of the world, as well as imbued with Divine wisdom.  We are not to mistake a counterfeit for the real, nor accept every man's doctrine lest we disagree.  The Truth is positive but non-combative; It is sure of Itself, but never argumentative.  It loves sincerity and abhors deceit.  Above all else, the Truth is wise, It represents the All-seeing Eye, from which nothing can be hidden.  The student of Truth will receive all that comes in the name of the Lord, that is, all that is of the Truth; all else will fall by its own weight.

History Proves the Reality of Truth (Matt. 26:52)

As we glance over the pages of history, this saying of Jesus stands sure and true:  "...for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."  Those nations who have risen by the sword have fallen among the ruins of their own false hopes.  History has proven that strife begets strife, that the way of the transgressor is hard.

In international strife, all nations are beaten, in so far as they have taken up the sword in hate, avarice or lust.  We do not recognize this apparent power which lasts for a day, for it is but a false gesture, defeating its own purpose as falseness ever must.

Jesus speaking from the viewpoint of Eternal Truth, said that all who take the sword shall perish with it.  THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THE BEST TO THE WORLD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BEST REMEMBERED BY IT, AND MOST LOVED THROUGHOUT THE AGES.  If we attempt to measure existence from this short span of life, it would not be explained, and we should find no real answer to life itself.  Hate begets hate and strife produces strife.  Love alone overcomes all and justifies the eternity of her dominion.

God Turns to Us as We Turn to Him (Luke 15)

The parable of the Prodigal Son constitutes one of the greatest spiritual lessons in the history of religious education.  It is an attempt, on the part of the Great Teacher, to show that God turns to us as we turn to Him; that there is a reciprocal action between the Universal and the individual mind; that the Spirit is ready to help us whenever we turn to It.

The greatest lesson we have to learn is the unity of Love and Law; the necessity of law in shaping a divine individuality and the necessity of experience in awakening to this divine individuality.

God is Love and God is Law; the Love of God is omnipresent and the Law of God is omnipresent.  The Love of God is the Divine givingness: the eternal outpouring of Spirit through Its creation.  The Law of God is the Law of Cause and Effect, which says that we can have only what we take.  Since this taking is a mental and spiritual (as well as physical) act, we can take only that to which we are receptive.  Jesus taught that it is done unto us as we really believe.  "The thought is ever father to the act.""

May 9 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Pearl of Great Price (Matt. 13:45, 46) ~ Ernest Holmes

"The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a pearl of great price, for which a man will sell all that he has, that he may possess it.  This, perhaps, best explains the way of the illumined.  To them, the kingdom of heaven has meant everything, and has been above all else.  We find them going away by themselves that they may more completely enjoy this inner realization of their relationship to the Whole.  A divine companionship has ever attended such, on the pathway of human experience.  The description of the things they have seen, felt and heard, constitutes some of the most valuable lessons the world has ever learned.

The only news we have of Heaven has come through he consciousness of men, and to those few who have penetrated the veil of illusion and entered the realms of deeper reality, we owe a debt that cannot be paid in any other terms than those of appreciation and thanksgiving.

That the illumined have had experiences which the average man cannot conceive of, is certain; and that anyone who wills to know Truth may know it, is evident to all who make the attempt.  But let us not forget that spiritual experiences are normal, natural and rational.  The illumined have always had rational intellects and well-balanced mentalities.

No experience is salutary, unless it be gained while in a normal state of mind.  Too great a warning cannot be given against any attempt to break through the veil, when in any other but a perfectly normal mental state.

Jesus lived in the spiritual world just as normally as we live in the material, and just as consciously.  And what is the spiritual world?  And where is it?  It is right here, could we but see it.  Behind everything material, stands the spiritual, supporting it, and without which there could be no material.

That Which Defiles (Matt. 15:18, 19, 20)

Not what we eat or drink, but what we think, defiles.  The issues of life are from within.  If a man is clean in his mind, then is he clean indeed.  We must keep the mental house free from any thought which contradicts the truth of being.

Life is what consciousness makes it.  This is a great realization.  Experience may appear to disclaim this fact, but the principle involved is an immutable one, and cannot be shaken any more than the integrity of the universe can be violated.

Let each resolve to be true to himself, true to his inner light, true to the Truth as he understands It.  When every man learns to speak the Truth, a complete salvation will come to the world.  If one thinks impurity, then his acts will be impure.  If his thought dwells on purity and Truth, then his acts - reflecting his mind - will make him pure and true.

Every plant which is not of God's planting shall be rooted up.  In the long run, everything that does not belong to the Heavenly Kingdom will be destroyed.  Truth alone can endure.

When the Blind Lead the Blind (Matt. 15:14)

"If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."  We must be careful what kind of thought we are following.  We must test all ideas to see whether they are of the Truth.  It is a mistake to accept every man's philosophy simply because it sounds plausible.  We are to be on guard against accepting that which is not true.  And let us remember this:  the Truth is simple, direct and always self-evident.

False ideas heaped  upon false ideas make bad matters worse.  The whole confusion of the world arises from the fundamental errors of thought.  Chief among these errors - and the father to a greater part of the others - is a belief in duality.  The belief in duality supposes that evil is equal to good:  that a suppositional devil divides, with Good, the kingdom of Truth.  Such things cannot be.  Remember the teachings of Moses, that "God is One."  If, on the other hand, we accept that evil has a power equal to good, then we must fall into the ditch of our own confusion.

To believe in the good alone, may seem fallacious to many, but he who thus believes will find his path lighted by a torch which flickers not, nor fails."

May 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Seeing Eye (Matt. 13:16) ~ Ernest Holmes

""Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear."  What is it the eye should see and the ear hear?  Do not all people's eyes see and their ears hear?  No.  But few, indeed, when looking, see, or listening, hear.

We are to see that Spirit creates all things by the power of Its own word, and that we are spiritual beings.  We are to hear that inner voice of Truth, which is ever proclaiming the freedom of all life, the eternal unity of God with man.  It is useless for those who have never experienced this inner seeing or hearing to deny its reality.  A man might as well say there is no meadow because he has never seen one.  The world needs spiritual experience, as it needs bread and butter.  Men need spiritual convictions as they need meat and drink.  And with spiritual convictions come all else.  To those who have, shall be given.

The Kingdom and the Mustard Seed (Matt. 13:31, 32)

"The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed."  From a knowledge of mental action, we know that a constructive idea, planted or buried in the subjective mind, tends to grow into a real condition.  Jesus could not have chosen a more comprehensive way to illustrate this point.

The Kingdom is Like Leaven (Matt.13:33)

"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven."  We know that thoughts planted in mind have the power to chemicalize opposing ideas, and leaven the whole lump of subjectivity.  In this way, ideas gradually permeate the mind and influence all thought and action.  If the idea is of heaven, it will certainly bring about a heavenly state."

April 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Nothing Can Be Hidden (Luke 12:2) ~ Ernest Holmes

"In saying, "there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known," Jesus was referring to the Mind that knows; to the all-seeing eye, from which nothing is concealed.  The cosmic Ear hears everything, the Eternal Mind knows all things, and the Law of cause and effect brings everything to pass in due time.

A Man's Foes (Matt. 10:36)

"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."  There are no enemies external to our own mind.  This is one of the most difficult problems to understand, and - simple as it sounds - it penetrates the depths of creative causation.  Nothing can happen to us unless it happens through us.  That which we refuse to accept, to us cannot be, and that which to us is, cannot help becoming a reality in our lives.  But someone will say, "I did not conceive of this evil which came upon me; it was not in my mind."  The question then arises, "Can any particular evil be real to one, if he refuses to entertain it in his thought?"  The answer must forever be, it cannot.  This is one of those "hard sayings" which it is difficult to understand, but the principle involved is plain.

If we can divorce our lives from the thought of evil - from receptivity to it - if we can bring our mentality to a place where it no longer conceives evil, then evil cannot exist for us.  The proof of this doctrine remains for individual conviction, through experience, but it is well worth trying.

The Reward of True Visioning (Matt.  10:41)

"He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man, in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward."  There comes to each the logical and exact result of his own receptivity.  To each, life brings the reward of his own visioning; to the pure, all is pure.  To the righteous, all is righteous, and to the good, all is good. The reward of merit is an objective outcome of merit itself and not a thing superimposed by any Divine Mandate.  Each man is rewarded not for virtue but through virtue.

Wisdom Is Justified of her Children (Matt. 11:18, 19)

"Wisdom is justified of her children."  Jesus had been questioning his hearers about John the Baptist.  "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say He hath a devil.  The Son of a man came eating and drinking, and they say, "Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.  But, wisdom is justified of her children."

This shows that the world ever finds some flaw in human character.  If a man fasts, he is possessed of peculiar ideas; and if he feasts, he is a materialist and a glutton.  But Jesus would have us understand that virtue consists neither in eating nor drinking, nor yet in abstaining from eating and drinking.  "Wisdom is justified of her children."  A man may desire to fast and be wise, or he may desire to feast and still be wise.  VIRTUE IS INDEPENDENT OF ANY MATERIAL FORM WHICH IT MAY TAKE.  The children of wisdom look to the inner, and not to the outer, for justification.  Wisdom knows neither publican nor sinner, but is conscious only of herself, though she may dress in many garments.

If one believes that virtue consists in fasting, then virtue appears to him through fasting; but to him who finds no virtue in fasting, feasting may appear to be a greater virtue.  We are over-concerned with non-essentials, straining at gnats, while swallowing mountains of superstition."