November 17 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE PRACTICE of SPIRITUAL MIND HEALING

Ernest Holmes

 

“A sense of separation from good causes us to feel restricted, while a sense of our Unity with GOOD changes the currents of Causation and brings a happier condition into the experience.  Everything in the physical universe is an effect, and exists only by virtue of some invisible cause.  Man’s individuality enables him to make such use of the Law as he desires.  He is bound, not by limitation but by limited thought.  The same power which binds him will free him when he understands the Law to be one of liberty and not of bondage.  The power within man can free him from all distasteful conditions if the Law governing this power is properly understood and utilized.

The Law of Mind, which is the Medium of all action, is a law of perfect balance:  the objective world perfectly balances the images within the subjective world.  Water will reach its own level by its own weight, and according to the same law, consciousness will externalize at its own level by its own weight.  Cause and effect are but two sides of the same thing, one being an image in mind and the other the objective condition.  Here is the invariable rule for knowing how to treat.  We can judge the subjective concept only by its objective effect.  If everything a man does leads to confusion, we should treat to know that he is poised.  The spirit is not confused over anything.  If everything a man does turns out to be a failure, we must know that the Spirit within him cannot conceive failure.  What we put into the treatment will come out of it.  More than we appear to put into it can come out of it, but not a different type.  If I plant a watermelon seed, I will get watermelons but I will get a number of melons, and they will have a lot of seeds which can produce more melons, so the thought is MULTIPLICITY but never DIVISION.  Treatment is a definite, conscious, concrete thing.  There is intention in a treatment and there should be a definite acceptance.”

October 9 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Evolution (Continued)

"Evolution is a principle which, though invisible, finds manifestation in every form of life.  It is the logical or necessary outcome of Universal Intelligence of Spirit; but evolution is an effect of Intelligence and not its cause.  Evolution can only follow involution.  Involution is the idea, while evolution is the unfoldment of the idea.  INVOLUTION PRECEDES EVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION FOLLOWS WITH MECHANICAL PRECISION, PROPELLED BY AN IMMUTABLE LAW...the Law of Cause and Effect.

God is Universal Intelligence or Spirit.  The only way Intelligence can move is by an interior movement.  God must move within God, if God is ALL.  He moves within and upon Himself.  It is evident that the movement back of the objective world must be a subjective movement - a movement of consciousness.  It is necessary , then, that whatever movement takes place, it MUST take place within and upon the One; and it follows that whatever is created, is created out of this One.

God moves upon God.  This is the starting point of Creation.  Every time one conceives an idea, it is God expressing Himself.  He is eternally knowing, and eternally known through everyone.  It is God's nature to know and there is an emotional craving, or desire for expression, inherent in the Universe.  There is a Universal Law obeying the Will of Spirit.   This is the Law through which that which is involved, evolves.   We, as conscious Spirit, set a Universal Law in motion which makes things from ideas.  The Spirit INVOLVES the Law EVOLVES.  The Law does not know that It is evolving; it is Its nature to evolve and this nature is mechanical."

September 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
Ernest Holmes

"Mind is forever conscious of Itself and of what It does.  Its consciousness is Its law.  Its consciousness is perfect and Its laws are perfect.  Mind cannot be conscious of anything but Itself, since It is all.  Spirit is conscious of man since man exists and since God must be conscious of all that is.  Therefore man is, because God is conscious of him.  And God's consciousness of man must be complete and perfect.  Generic man must be held in the Mind of God as a complete and perfect manifestation of the Divine.

Mind is all-inclusive and all-pervading. Mind is also self-governing and self-propelling.  Spirit is conscious of love as Its is conscious of life.  It is inspired by love and Its government is one of love.  Thus love is the fulfilling of the perfect law.  Law is the outcome of love and love is the outpusher through law.  Love and law go hand in hand to produce a complete and perfect manifestation.

Man's consciousness of God constitutes his real and immortal self.  There is really only one man viewed from the Universal sense, but in this one, or "grand man" as it has been called, there are innumerable persons.  Each is in direct relationship to the Whole.  Each is an image of God but God is not lessened by being represented in innumerable forms and through limitless numbers of mentalities any more than the figure five would become exhausted by being used by innumerable mathematicians.

Our consciousness of God is our real self and at the same time it is both personal and impersonal.  It is personal in that it is personified through us and it is impersonal in that we are all using a universal power.  When we know that we are using such a power all doubt as to our ability to use it will vanish and our words will be spoken with spontaneous reliance on Truth.

In spiritual healing the practitioner deals with thought alone.  He is not dealing with a sick body or a sick man.  There is no one to be healed in the Truth and we must think in the Truth if we expect to heal.  There is no material body to be healed and no material man to suffer pain or anguish.  Disease is neither person, place nor thing to the one who wishes to heal.  The practitioner must try to become conscious of perfection alone and nothing else.  In whose mind is he to become conscious of perfection?  In the only person's mind he can ever be conscious of anything, in his own mind.  The first man to be healed is the practitioner.

Here in his own mind he meets the belief in the necessity of sickness or discord.  He repudiates this belief and explains to himself what the real truth is.  He is conscious, as his explanation goes on, that he is meeting and neutralizing false claims held to be true about his patient.  Knowing that they are false, he resolves them into thoughts and heals the thought.  The whole process is one of thought and realization and could not be anything else.

The practitioner works within his own mind until he is mentally satisfied, until the whole reaction in his thought causes him to understand that his patient is now healed.  This healing is really the action of Spirit upon the mind of the healer, the active Principle of truth, goodness and harmony.

Since the Divine must hold us as some part of Its eternal perfection, we are fulfilling our destiny when we think of ourselves as already Divine and perfect.  To contemplate that Divine Life which is at the very center of everyman's life - this is the very essence of mental healing.

This is what we mean by realization.  Words carry the mind forward to a place in thought where realization begins.  At this point the most effective work is done.  It is an inward feeling, a silent sense of Divine Reality.  Troward tells us that the Divine Spirit is the limitless potential of human life.  Which means that the human is really Divine but will ever evolve into newer and better states of conscious being.

In practice we state clearly in words what these ideas mean to us and then we relate these statements to some needed experience or to some desired good which we have not been experiencing.  After using whatever words will bring conviction to our thought we pause and try to realize the presence of the All Power from which every special good comes.  This is the adding the Spirit to the letter of the Law.  However we should never forget that both the letter and the Spirit are necessary in our work.  The letter molds while the Spirit creates.  The thought is a mold, conviction is the molten substance poured into this mold.  One is not complete without the other and many people make the mistake of using only one of these essential states of consciousness.

When we live in obedience to the Power which is over us we shall be able to consciously direct the lesser conditions that are around us.  Adam was permitted to name all creation and man was supposed to exercise an authority over all that is below him.  This means his whole physical environment, of course.  But this power was abused and the experience of lack, sickness and limitation fell upon humanity.  Adam symbolizes everyman's experience. The allegory of Eden is the story of human evolution.

Wherever the image of thought is set, there the Power to create resides.  "God if thou seest God, Dust if thou seest dust." Can we see good where evil appears to be?  Then we can remove the evil.  When we bring a lamp into a darkened room, where does the darkness go?  The darkness neither came nor did it go, anywhere.  It never was a thing of itself, merely a condition.  And we have power over conditions."

September 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM the TEACHINGS of JESUS
Ernest Holmes

The Secret of Prayer (Matt. 6:6)

"The secret of prayer and its power in the outward life depends upon an unconditioned faith in, and reliance upon this inner Presence.  We must enter the closet.  That is, we are to shut out all else and enter the Presence of Spirit, in quietness and confidence - believing.  Prayer has power, not through repetition, but by belief and acceptance.  Prayer is to be simple, direct and receiving.  We are to believe that God indwells our own life, that this Divine Presence is sufficient for all needs.  we are to believe that God will provide for us and bless us abundantly.  And when we enter this secret place, we are to leave all else behind; all hate, animosity and vindictiveness, for only in so doing can we enter.

How God Forgives ( Matt. 6:14, 15)

We are told that God will forgive us after we have forgiven others.  This is a direct statement and one that we should ponder deeply.  Can God forgive until we have forgiven?  If God can work for us only by working through us, then this statement of Jesus stands true, and is really a statement of the law of cause and effect.  We cannot afford to hold personal animosities or enmities against the world or individual members of society.  All such thoughts are outside the law and cannot be taken into the heavenly consciousness.  Love alone can beget love.  People do not gather roses from thistles.

The Father who seest in secret will reward us openly.  Shall we not learn to enter the "secret place of the Most High," within our own soul, in gladness?  We are to fast without outward sign, but with the inner mind open and receptive to the Good alone.  Our treasure is already in heaven, and our thought can take us to this treasure only when it is in accord with divine harmony and perfect love.

The Single Eye (Matt. 6:22)

If our eye is single, we shall be filled with light.  That is, when we perceive the Unity of Good, we shall perceive it in its entirety, an undivided whole.  But if our eye be filled with evil, we shall remain in darkness.  We must cleave to the good, and trust absolutely in the Law of God to bring about any desired end.  Spirit will mold our purposes when we allow It to do so.  As we learn to depend more and more upon the perfect Law, we shall find that the outward things which are necessary to our good, will be provided.  We shall be cared for as the lilies of the field, which live directly upon the Divine bounty.  And yet they toil not nor do they spin.

The Divine Bounty (Matt. 6:26)

As God cares for the birds, who do not gather into barns, so shall we be cared for if we trust and do not doubt.  But we are to seek the Kingdom first.  Jesus bade us to completely trust in God for everything and in every instance.  He had a complete reliance upon God.  Dare we say that such confidence will be misplaced?  Have we ever tried it?  Until we have tried and failed, we are not in a position to contradict this theory.  Those who have implicitly relied upon this theory are providing the principle to be definite, and one upon which an absolute reliance may be placed.

Have no fear of tomorrow; enjoy today.  Refuse to carry the corpse of a mistaken yesterday.  What untold misery is suffered through the burdens imposed by our yesterdays and the bitter prospects of our tomorrows!  The good of the present day is too often sandwiched between these two impossible situations.  The day in which we live is sufficient.  We are to live today as though God were in His Heaven, while all is well with our souls.

Jesus made the greatest claim upon God, of anyone who ever lived.  He demanded a complete and unreserved trust in the goodness and loving kindness of the Creator.  And harking down the ages - since he lived and taught his marvelous philosophy to mankind - those who have followed his teachings have been justified in their faith."

August 31 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
Ernest Holmes

"We should contact a larger field of faith.  This is done by understanding that God is the giver and the sustainer of human life and expression.  God is all there is.  He is Substance and Supply.  We must learn to accept this.  If it is God's pleasure to give us the Kingdom then it should be our privilege to accept the gift.

The Spirit has not withheld good from us, but ignorance of the true law of supply has caused us to have fear.  "They could not enter in because of their unbelief and because they limited the Holy One of Israel."  We should endeavor to stop limiting God.  All things are given unto us but we shall have to do the taking.  God gives in the abstract, we receive in the concrete.  The gift of Heaven is forever made.  The receiving of this gift is an eternal process of forever expanding the finite.

Since we cannot contract the Absolute we shall have to expand the relative.  The Infinite will not be, or become, less than Itself.  We are of Its nature.  We did not make our own being.  All we can do is to accept that the being which we are is some part of the Divine.  To know this is to overcome fear.  Whether this fear is of lack, pain, sickness or death, it is always a belief that there is something other than Life or that Life withholds pleasure, peace, success and Heaven from us.

Love alone can overcome fear because love surrenders itself to the object of its adoration.  The soul must make a complete surrender of itself to the Spirit.  That is, the Law must come under subjection to the Spirit.  The will of the Spirit is peace, clear thinking and happiness, It could have no other will.

Should we learn to contemplate those things which are desirable and to forget the rest, we would soon overcome fear through faith.  Both are mental.  Let us learn to reverse the thoughts of fear and transmute them into faith.

Since Spirit is present in Its entirety at all times and in all places it follows, that all of Spirit is wherever we center our attention.  And since Spirit is both receptivity and creative responsiveness it follows that wherever we center our attention its image must concentrate substance into the form of such attention.  This is fundamental to our concept of mental and spiritual treatment.  For it is not by external power nor through objective might that our work is to be done, but through the Spirit and the Law.  The Spirit guides and the Law executes.  That which we can take is given us.

Pure Spirit exists at the center of all form.  Of Itself, It is formless but It is ever giving birth to form.  The forms come and go but It goes on forever.  We are some part of It.  If pure Spirit is at the center of everything and is always responding to our thought there is no limit to Its manifestation for us except the limitations that we set.

If it is difficult to see this, realize that our subjective self is the immediate connection between the Absolute and the relative.  It is our share of the Law and immediately connects us with the Creativeness of the Whole.  The Absolute is in relationship to Itself alone.  It is not circumscribed by any form but remains independent of all forms.  It can as easily create a new form for us as to perpetuate an old one.

Mind is the realm of causes.  Conditions are in the realm of effects.  Effects flow from causes and not from themselves.  Thought is the instrument of Mind.  New thoughts create new conditions.  We must learn to think in the Absolute.  This means to think independently of any given or experienced effect.  "Judge not according to appearances."  This thought strikes away the shackles of bondage and finds a new cause at work.

Just as we can conceive of some definite idea, then go on to the conception of another, so we can treat for as many conditions as we can clearly conceive.

We cannot account for the seen without having faith in the unseen.  All advance in science or any other branch of learning must follow this rule if it is to accomplish anything.  To believe in Life is to believe in the invisible.  As science postulates some etheric movement at the center of all objective form, so we start with the premise that this initial movement starts as Pure Intelligence, independent of any form but ready to take form.  All form is temporary even though it lasts for countless millions of years.  That is, any given form comes and goes in a process of time for any given time is temporary.

We have arrived at the conclusion that Spirit or the Mind of God is all Causation.   Then Spirit or Mind is also all effect.  Cause and effect are but two ends of one Unity.  The physical end is visible, the spiritual invisible, but may be inwardly perceived and outwardly experienced.

Spirit, then, is all there is at this very hour and all creation is spiritual.  The Universe is a Spiritual System impregnated with Divine Ideas and peopled with Spiritual Forms.  The ideas of God are perfect laws on their way to producing complete and perfect effects.  The Universe is alive, conscious, awake and aware.  It is love and life.  It is law and order.  It is a Cosmos."

August 28 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS from the NEW TESTAMENT
Ernest Holmes

Mental Expansion (II Cor. 3:18)

""But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

As our thought is opened and we behold the image of eternity within ourselves, we are changed by this image into a newness of Life.  This is accomplished by the Spirit of God.

The subjective state of thought is the creative medium within us, which fact psychology has proven beyond any question of doubt.  Emerson tells us that we are inlets and might become outlets to the divine Nature.  We are already inlets, but we must consciously become outlets.  A great mystic tells us that the upper part of the soul is merged with God and the lower part with time and conditions.  Plotinus says that when the soul looks to God alone for its inspiration, its work is done better - even though its back is turned to its work.  And Jesus tells us to seek the Kingdom of god first and that all else will be added unto us.

Now the image of God is imprinted upon each of us and all reflect the Divine Glory to some degree.  Indeed we are part of the Divine Glory.  When our thought is turned from limitation to the greater glory, we then reflect that glory.

When the subjective state of our thought receives its images from Reality, it, in turn, reflects this Reality into all that we do.  Gradually, as this process takes place, the outer man becomes changed, and as his concepts become enlarged, so his conditions and physique take on a newness of life.

And this change in the outer is brought about by the Spirit of God.  The Spirit of God - being the One and Only Presence in the Universe - brings about events and re-molds conditions after Its own likeness.

The Ascending Scale of Life 9 II Cor. 3:7-12)

We are changed from glory to glory.  This implies that the divine scale is ever ascending,  There is no end to the Divine Nature and therefore no end to the possibility of our expressing It.  BUT WE MUST BEHOLD IT, we must look steadfastly into this Reality, if we are to image It in our own minds.

Here is no forlorn outlook, no limited concept!  All that God has, or IS, belongs to us and is ours to make use of.  We are not to separate Life from living, but unite the two into a perfect One.  ...The Thing and the way It works; the glory, and the image of the glory in common affairs of everyday life.  Nor hath eye seen nor can tongue tell the greater possibility of any soul.  Only God has revealed this through His Son.  And this Son is each one of us, from the apparent least to the apparent greatest.

The world is saturated with Divinity, immersed in Reality, and filled with possibility.  We must take this divine possibility and mold it into a present actuality in everyday experience.  This is the way to freedom, the pathway to peace and happiness."

August 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

I Shall Not Doubt nor Fear

I shall not doubt nor fear, for my salvation is from On High,

and the day of its appearing is now at hand.

I shall not doubt nor fear, for my whole being responds

to the realization of Life within and around me.

I shall not fear, for the Hosts of Heaven are waiting upon me,

and the Law of the Universe is my Salvation.

I shall not fear.

August 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS from the NEW TESTAMENT
By Ernest Holmes

Bless and Curse Not (Romans 12:14)

""Bless and curse not."  Here is the whole law and prophets.   We are to overcome evil with good.  Evil lasts but for a day, while goodness shines to eternity and loving kindsness is the very nature of Deity.  As the darkness has no power over light, so evil is overcome with good.

"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."  This is a statement of the law of cause and effect.  God does not avenge, but the law of cause and effect exacts the uttermost farthing.  We need not worry how things are coming out; the law takes care of everything and returns to each exactly what is his due.

The Great Awakening (Romans 13:11)

"Now it is high time to awake out of sleep."  The belief in a life apart from Good is a dream from which we must awake, if we are to taste the waters of Reality, which flow from the Source of Life.

As one awakes from a nightmare, so the mentality awakes from the dream of living death to a realization of eternal life.  We cast off the works of darkenss when we realize that evil is not an entity but a fraud.  The armor of light is the Truth, the very knowing of which makes free.

This awakening is a process of evolution, a little here and a little there, until the whole eye is opened and we see that life is neither separate from God nor different from Good.  Life is God, and Good is the only power there is, or can be.

To awaken oneself is to be healed, made prosperous, happy and satisfied; to be made every whit whole, to be complete as we were intended to be.  God is a God of the living and not of the dead.  He sees and knows only perfection and completion; happiness and satisfaction.  When we shall think of ourselves as God knows us, then complete salvation will come to us."

August 7 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

OTHER TEACHINGS from the NEW TESTAMENT
By Ernest Holmes

The Law of Correspondents (Romans 1:20)

"This teaching incorporates the great law of correspondents.  The spiritual world contains an image of the physical; the physical is a counter part of the spiritual.  A true estimate of the outward symbol points to the spiritual reality behind it.

We understand the unseen by correctly viewing the seen.  The outward effect must partake of its inward nature.  The physical universe is the result of an inner Intelligence, working through Law.  Behind form is idea.  The Formless creates form, through the creative power of Its own Mind and Spirit.

Behind every effect there is a cause, and if this cause is a spiritual idea - which it must be - then it follows that should the spiritual idea be discerned, the physical effect would be like it.  The entire possibility of demonstrating the Law of Good depends upon this proposition.  The idea is father to the fact.  Ideas are real, having the power within themselves to be made manifest.

The whole teaching of the Bible is to the effect that God is Universal Spirit, and Universal Creation.  He creates by the power of His Word.  This Word is the law of His Being.  Man reproduces the Divine Nature on the scale of the individual.  He also uses creative power which works through the law of his word.  From this he cannot escape, he need only to use this power constructively and all will be well.  If he uses the creative power of his thought destructively, then it will destroy.

In the Science of Mind, we learn that persistent, constructive thought is the greatest power known and the most effective.  If the visible effect in our lives is not what it should be, if we are unhappy, sick and poverty stricken, we know the remedy.  The Truth is always the remedy, and the Truth is that the law of liberty is the only real law.  When we reverse the process of thought, the effect will be reversed."

July 14 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
By Ernest Holmes

Thought Atmosphere

"Spiritual mind healing is a result of the constructive use of a mental law, which the world is gradually beginning to understand.  Since we are thinking beings and cannot stop thinking, and since Creative Mind receives our thought and cannot stop creating, It must always be creating something for us.  What It will make depends wholly upon what we are thinking, and what we shall attract will depend upon that on which our thoughts dwell.

Thought can attract to us that which we first mentally embody, that  which has become a part of our mental makeup, a part of our inner understanding.  Every person is surrounded by a thought atmosphere.  This mental atmosphere is the direct result of his conscious and unconscious thought, which, in its turn,becomes the direct reason for, and cause of, that which comes into his life.  Thorough this power we are either attracting or repelling.  Like attracts like and it is also true that we may become attracted to something which is greater than our previous experience, by first embodying the atmosphere of our desire.

Taking as the starting point the idea that the essence of man's life is God, it follows that he uses the same creative process.  Everything originates in the One, comes form the same Source and returns again to It.  As God's thought makes worlds, and peoples them with living things, so our thought makes our world and peoples it with our experiences.  By the activity of our thought, things come into our life and we are limited only because we have not known the Truth.  We have thought that outside things controlled us, when all the time we have had that within which could have changed everything and given us freedom from bondage.

Everyone automatically attracts to himself just what he is, and we may set it down that wherever we are, however intolerable the situation may be, we are just where we belong.  There is no power in the universe but ourselves that can free us.  Someone may help us on the road to realization, but substantiality and permanence can come only through the consciousness of our own life and thought.  Man must bring himself to the place in mind where there is no misfortune, no calamity, no accident, no trouble, no confusion; where there is nothing but plenty, peace, power Life and Truth.  He should definitely, daily (using his own name) declare the Truth about himself, realizing that he is reflecting his statements into Consciousness and that they will be operated upon by It.

This is called, in mysticism, High Invocation; invoking the Divine Mind, implanting within It, seeds of thought relative to oneself.  And this is why some of the teachers of olden times used to instruct their pupils to cross their hands over their chests and say:  "Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful me!" definitely teaching them that as they mentally held themselves, so they would be held.  "Act as though I am and I will be."

One of the ancient sayings is that "To the man who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible."  This sounds like a contradiction until one penetrates its inner meaning, for it is only when one completely practices inaction that he arrives at the point of the true actor, for he then realizes that the act and the actor are one and the same; that cause and effect are the same; which is simply a different way of saying:  "Know the truth and the truth shall make you free."  To reduce the whole thing to its simplest form, whatever one reflects into Mind tends to take form."

July 13 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

"Assume a case of treatment for prosperity.  Suppose one comes to you and says, "Business is bad.  There is no activity."  How are you going to treat him?  Are you going to treat activity, business, customers, conditions or what?  There is but one thing to treat, as far as the practitioner is concerned, and that is HIMSELF.  The practitioner treats himself, the reason being that his patient's mind and his own mind are in the One Mind.

There is but one activity, which is perfect.  Nothing has happened to it, nothing can cut if off, it is always operating.  There is no belief in inactivity.  What is this statement for?  To neutralize the belief in inactivity.  A word spoken in Mind will reach its own level in the objective world by its own weight; just as in physical science we know that water reaches its own level.  You must destroy the thoughts of inactivity.  Man cannot become either discouraged or afraid if he realizes that there is but One Mind which he may consciously use.  The real man knows no discouragement, cannot be afraid, and has no unbelief.  And he who knows of the power with which he is dealing and who plants a seed of thought in Subjectivity, knows that it will come up and bear fruit.

Bring out the idea of Substance.  Make consciousness perceive that Substance is Spirit, Spirit is God, and God is all there is.  Once you acquaint the consciousness with this idea, it is implanted in the Creative Power which is externalized in your life.

Continue to declare there were no mistakes, there are none and there never will be.  Say, "I represent the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.  It is unerring, It never makes mistakes.  There are no mistakes in the Divine Plan for me.  There is no limitation, poverty, want nor lack.  I stand in the midst of eternal opportunity, which is forever presenting me with the evidence of its full expression.  I am joy, peace and happiness.  I am the spirit of joy within me.  I am the spirit of peace within me, of poise and of power.  I am the spirit of happiness within me.  I radiate Life; I am Life.  There is One Life and that Life is my life now."

It is not enough to say:  "There is One Life and that Life is God."  We must complete this statement by saying:  "That Life is my life now," because we must couple this Life with ours in order to express It.  We are not becoming this Life, but are now in and of this Life.  There is no other Life.  God is not becoming:  God IS.  God is not growing; God is complete.  God is not trying to find out something; God already knows.  Evolution is not the expression of a becoming God, but is simply one of the ways that a God Who already IS, expresses Himself; and as such it is the logical result of involution and is eternally going on.

For the man who believes that "business is bad"; for the one who thinks he has made many mistakes and will make more; for the man who sees nothing but inactivity about him, the following meditation might be used:

"I know I am now at the threshold of all good, wisdom and Truth.  All the good I can embody is now mine.  I have only to open the portals of my soul and accept that which is ready to express through me.

"I expect, fully and emphatically, the answer to my prayer today.  Right now do I possess this thing I so greatly desire.  I remove my fear of lack and negation, for it is the only barrier which stands in the way of my experience of good.  I alone can remove it, and I do remove it now.

"In this moment my good comes to me, enough to spare, to give and to share. I can never be exhausted, my good can never be depleted, because that Source from which my good comes is inexhaustible.

"Today, in this moment, the Law responds to my thought.  My word is one of affirmation, rising from the knowledge that the Good, the Enduring and the True are Eternalities in my experience.  I cannot be apart from that which is my good.  My good is assured me by God, the Indwelling Essence of my life.""

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 9 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS 
By Ernest Holmes

Perfect Action ... No Mistakes

"In mental work,, we must realize that there is One Infinite Mind, which is consciously directing our destiny.  Declare every day that:  "No mistakes have been made, none are being made, and none can be made."  Declare:  "There is One Supreme Intelligence which governs, guides and guards, tells me what to do, when to act and how to act."  Having done this in perfect faith, act with perfect assurance.  Declare further:  "Everything necessary to the full and complete expression of the most boundless experience of joy is mine now."  Know this, see it, feel it and BE it.  Do this every day for a few minutes.  We should all do this until the time comes when it is no longer necessary.  When that time comes we will know it because our demonstrations will have been made.

Suppose someone says, "I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, I had opportunities I did not grasp."  Every man has this feeling at some time in his life.  This is a direct belief that there is but one opportunity which comes to man and if he does not take it he will have no more.  This is a belief in limited opportunities and it must be denied completely and specifically.  It is not that we have made no mistakes, but if the belief in the necessity of mistakes stays in the consciousness, then there is bound to be a repetition.  It is scientific practice to declare that there have been no mistakes in man's consciousness, that if there have been they are now wiped out.  There are none in the Divine Plan, and there is no plan for man other than the Divine Plan.

If a man had had, and apparently lost, many opportunities, he must be shown that he stands at the point of limitless opportunity; that opportunity is right here today; that he sees and grasps it.  It recognizes him as he recognizes it.  We exist in Limitless Opportunities, which are forever seeking expression through us.

Know that there is no condemnation, for nothing can condemn unless we believe in condemnation.  Destroy the thought that would place limitation or bondage upon any situation or condition.  "Loose him and let him go."  Talk to yourself, not to the world.  There is no one to talk to but yourself for all experience takes place within.  Conditions are the reflections of our meditations and nothing else.  There is but One Mind, that Mind is our mind now.  It never thinks confusion, knows what It wishes and how to accomplish what It desires.  It is what It desires!"

July 8 ~ The Science of MInd in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

See Life Expressed

"One should analyze himself, saying, "Do I look at myself from a standpoint of restriction?  Do I see life limited to the eternal round of getting up in the morning, eating, going to work, coming home, going to bed, sleeping, getting up again and so on?"  Break the bonds of apparent necessity and see life as one continuous expression of the Infinite Self, and as this conception gradually dawns upon the inner thought, something will happen in the outer conditions to relieve the greater demands of necessity.  Free yourself forever from the thought that God may be pleased by a life of sacrifice, that the world is any better because of your misery, or that righteousness is more perfectly expressed through poverty than abundance.  Know that the greater abundance of every good thing which you are bringing out in your life, the more perfectly you are satisfying the Divine Urge within you.  ANYTHING YOU CAN DREAM OF is not too great for you to undertake, if it hurts no man and brings happiness and good into your life.  If one were doing the work he should be doing he would never become tired, because the energy which holds the universe in place is tireless.  The reason we become tired is that we have cross currents of thought about our work.  This arises from a belief in duality - a belief in both Good and evil.

In treating we conceive of the ultimate of the idea but never of the process.  Never treat a process.  We plant a seed and there is in the seed, operating through the creative soil, everything that will cause it to develop, unfold and produce a plant.  The ultimate of effect is already potential in its cause.  This is the mystical meaning of the words:  "I am Alpha and Omega."  Our word for the fullest expression of our life or for its smallest detail should be the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of the thing thought of.  All cause and effect are in Spirit, they are bound together in one complete whole.  One is the inside, the other the outside of the same thing.

Never let anything cause you to doubt your ability to demonstrate the Truth.  CONCEIVE OF YOUR WORD AS BEING THE THING.  See the desire as an already accomplished fact and rest in perfect confidence, peace and certainty, never looking for results, never wondering, never becoming anxious, never being hurried nor worried.  Those who do not understand this attitude may think you are inactive but remember: "To him who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible."

What we know about Subjective Mind proves that It is unconscious of time, knows neither time nor process.  It knows only the completion, the answer.  That is why it is written, "Before they call, I will answer."  Cosmic Creation is from idea to object.  It does not know anything about process; process is involved in it but not consciously.  Correct practice should know that ultimate right action is now, today.  If we say, "Tomorrow it is going to be," then according to the very law we are using we hold the answer in a state of FUTURITY WHICH CAN NEVER BECOME PRESENT.   If a gardener holds his seed in his hand and says, "Tomorrow I am going to plant this seed," his garden will never start growing.  Therefore, Jesus said:  "When ye pray, believe that ye have and ye shall receive."  He did not say believe and you will immediately have.  He said, "Ye shall receive."  He did not deny the natural law of evolution and growth.  Nature operates according to a law of logical sequence."

July 7 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

How to Demonstrate a Home

"All our beautiful dreams, all our wishing and praying, for material good, will reach no higher level in our experience than our belief in the power of God and in His willingness to help us.  God's willingness to help us is expressed in the existence of that Immutable Law which gives us exactly the type of objective experience for which we build a mental likeness.  If we have the mental equivalent of a commodious home, roomy, light, cheery, and an income in keeping with it; if we are able to build in mind the kind of home we wish, and there is nothing in our subjective thought which denies this, then we shall be able to decide and demonstrate for ourself the kind of home we desire."

July 1 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

The Prayer of Faith

"No class of people on earth believes more in prayer than we do.  Our whole theory is based not only on the belief in Spirit, but in the availability of It - Its immediate response.  We even go so far as to say in everyday language:  "Pray right and God cannot help responding"  This is as far as anyone can go in faith.  There is no confusion in the approach to Reality.  It should be calm and dispassionate but filled with feeling because feeling and emotion are creative.  We should combine the letter and the spirit of the Law.

Faith is the power of prayer.  Now what is faith?  When you analyze faith you find that it is a mental attitude against which there is no longer any contradiction in the mind that entertains it.  Unfortunately, we find there is great faith in fear.  Faith in the fear that one may lose his position; faith in the fear that one may lose material possessions; faith in the fear that one may lose his health, and so on.

If the mental attitude is in relationship to God, that is faith in God.  If it is in relationship to one's ability to write a poem, that is faith in one's creative ability.  FAITH IS A MENTAL ATTITUDE WHICH IS SO CONVINCED OF ITS OWN IDEA - WHICH SO COMPLETELY ACCEPTS IT - THAT ANY CONTRADICTION IS UNTHINKABLE AND IMPOSSIBLE.  Before such a mental attitude can be created, there must be nothing left in the subjective state of our thought which contradicts our objective affirmation.

Faith is mental assertion elevated to the plane of realization.  It is beyond the mere quibbling or mumbling of words for it identifies itself with Reality in such a manner that Reality becomes real to the believer.  The Invisible becomes visible to the mind, and the unseen real.

Faith is real to the one who experiences it and cannot be denied to the mind of the one who has proven it.  And what is this faith we should have?  We should have faith that there is but One Mind.  This Mind is both the Mind of man and the Mind of God.  We use the Mind of God since there is but One Mind.  This Mind is the essence of creativeness and the essence of goodness.  It is available to all.  It is no respecter of persons since It has already incarnated through all.  It is in all and through all.  Faith will not be denied, will not take no for an answer.  It speaks an affirmative language.  Faith knows that the universe is a Spiritual System, that man is part of this system.  It knows that man's environment is also a part of this System.  Because the system is perfect the condition may become perfect, and would be perfect it if were known to be so.  Faith knows that the life of Man is God, the birthless and the deathless Reality of all Being.

Faith looks to the invisible and instead of seeing a void it fastens its gaze upon a solid reality.  Faith is not hope, it is Substance.  It does not look away from itself, being Substance it looks within itself.  In doing this it realizes that the life of God is also the life of man.  Faith affirms this and denies anything and everything that contradicts what to it is the supreme fact of existence.

Faith is essential to effective mental treatment, but this faith should be one of understanding.  So faith may be said to be scientific, that is, we are now dealing with a Principle that has been defined and we know something about the way It works.  We know how to use the Law governing It.  Faith in this Law helps us to use our understanding with greater conviction."

June 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY
By Ernest Holmes

"Conscious thought is the starting point of every new creation.  Trained thought is far more powerful than untrained since the admission that thought is power gives it added power.  This is one of the great secrets of Mental Science.  Conscious thought is the starting point.  The Subjective Law knows only to obey.  It can do nothing else.  It has no will of Its own.  We impress our will upon It.  We do not will, as though we were using an arbitrary force, we impress It.  We should be careful to differentiate between these two attitudes of mind.

The idea of a successful life will create success.  This idea will find objective form in the outer world of the one who holds to it with conviction.  It must first become established in the conscious mind.  It will then transmit itself into a subjective embodiment and when this happens success will become habitual.

If one does not know exactly what he wishes to do he should treat himself for general success in whatever he attempts to do.  He must treat himself for guidance into the knowledge of that which would be best for him to do, remembering that the Inner Mind knows infinitely more than the intellect.  It knows how to take ideas and form objective circumstances around them.  Naturally the sooner we know just what we wish to do the quicker we shall create the mental images that are definite and the Creative Mind can more quickly set to work to carry out our plans for us.

The objective mind alone may consciously decide what is to happen.  All subjective decisions are merely conclusions built on already accepted premises, ideas or thought patterns.  The conscious mind may change these thought patterns and thereby cause a different flow of energy and intelligence toward the objective of its desires.  The Spirit alone has the power of real self-expression and true volition.  This is why we call the conscious part of mind, the Spirit of man; the conscious Mind of the Universe, the Spirit of God.

Remember that when you use your subjective mind you are using the Creative Power of the Universe.  For the two are really one.  There is but One Mind, whether It be individual or Universal.  Remember also that Mind in its conscious state is Spirit, whether we think of It as in man or in God, that is, whether we think of It as individual or Universal.  Mind in its unconscious or subjective state is the Law of cause and effect.  The Law of cause and effect of Itself is not an entity but is the way that we use the great Law of all life.  From this viewpoint any particular effect may be changed by altering our thought relationship to the fundamental Law which gives rise to lesser causes and effects.  This we cannot do while we look only to that which is limited or already in form.  We DEAL WITH THE FORMLESS.

We must consciously know that we can use creative power. The more complete such acceptance on our part, the more completely we shall be able to use this power for definite purposes.  We should develop a conscious conviction of our ability to know and to understand the way that the mind works.  We shall not be able to do this while we listen to those who deny us, or themselves, the privileges we wish to enjoy.  No one ever yet found a living soul in a dead body or learned that affirmations of life and health will become beneficial by denying any power to them.

If, at times, we doubt our ability to  use the law, we should again remind ourselves that it is not I but the Spirit of the Father in me who doeth the work.  This will straighten our thought and place us again on the road of faith and understanding.  WE MUST BELIEVE.  WE MUST LEARN HOW TO BELIEVE.  WE SHOULD TREAT OURSELVES UNTIL WE DO BELIEVE.  No one every started at the top.  Let us be happy to begin right where we are and grow."

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 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

If We Know

"If we know that the Power with which we are dealing is Principle and not personality; if we know and believe that Mind is the only Actor, Cause, Effect, Substance, Intelligence, Truth and Power that there is; if we have a real embodiment; then we can demonstrate.  If we lack, if we are poor, if we are without friends, if we are without opportunity, we should be sure to erase from our consciousness any sense of lack.  We erase thought from consciousness by pouring in an opposite thought.  This thought meets the other and neutralizes its effect.  It rubs it out just as we rub a chalk mark off a board.   We must maintain a consistent, positive, aggressive mental attitude in the Truth.

We walk by falling forward; water falls by its own weight; the planets are eternally falling through space; everything sustains itself in nature.  The only reason man is limited is that he has not allowed the Divine within him to more completely express.  Man's Divine Individuality compels Infinity to appear in his experience as duality because he has believed in duality."