Unity ~ Ernest Holmes
"Our teaching is that man actually has a body; that he actually has a subjective life and that he actually is a spirit. Body, soul, and spirit represent a point where individuality is accentuated in Universality. It is only through this conception that we can arrive at a consciousness of the Unity of the Whole. In other words, if I have one mind and you have one mind and God has another Mind...three separate minds...I cannot talk with you and you cannot talk with God. If your mind and my mind were not the same mind, we would have no way by which to communicate with each other. Thus we are forced to the conclusion that there is but One Mind. Each individual, however, is a unique variation in the Universe; no two people are alike and yet all people are rooted in that which is identical.
We recognize, then, in man's self-knowing mind his Unity with the Whole; for while a drop of water is not the ocean, yet it does contain within itself all the attributes of the limitless deep. Man's self-knowing mind is the instrument which perceives Reality and cognizes or realizes Truth. All illumination, inspiration, and realization must come through the self-knowing mind in order to manifest in man. Vision, intuition and revelation proclaim themselves through man's self-knowing mind; and the saints and sages, the Saviours and Christs, the prophets and seers, the wise and learned have all consciously perceived and proclaimed this fact.
Every evidence of human experience, all acts of kindness and mercy, have interpreted themselves through man's self-knowing mind. All that we consciously know, say or think, feel or believe, hope or long for, fear or doubt, is some reaction of the self-knowing mind. Subjective memories we have, and unexpressed emotions we feel, but to the self-knowing mind alone comes realization. Without this capacity to consciously know, man would not exist as an expressed being; and so far as we are concerned, would not exist at all. The self-knowing mind of man proclaims itself in every thought, deed or act, and is truly the only guarantee of his divinity. It is his unity with the Whole, or God on the conscious side of life, and is an absolute guarantee that he is a center of God-consciousness in this vast Whole.
We will say, then, that in Spirit man is One with God. But what of the great Law of the Universe? If we are really One with the Whole, we must be One with the Law of the Whole, as well as One with the Spirit. Again psychology has determined the fact to be more than fancy. The characteristics of the subconscious mind of man determine his Subjective Unity with the Universe of Life, Law and Action.
In the subjective mind of man we find a law obeying his word, the servant of his spirit, the mental law of his being, the creative factor within him. This is our individual use of that greater Subjective Mind of the Universe, which is the seat of all law and action. Marvelous as this concept may be, it is none the less true that man has at his disposal in what he calls his subjective mind, a power which is Limitless. Man's thought becomes the law of his life, through the one great Law of all Life. There are not two subjective minds; there is but One Subjective Mind, and what we call our subjective mind is really the use we are making of this One Law.
Each individual maintains his identity in Law, through his personal use of Law, and each is drawing from Life what he thinks into it. To learn how to think is to learn how to live. Man, by thinking, can bring into his experience whatever he desires if he thinks correctly. This is not done by holding thoughts, but by knowing the Truth. There is a vast difference, a difference which too few realize.
Modern science tends toward a teaching of Unity; tends to resolve the material universe into a physical universe, and the physical universe into energy. The tendency of modern thought is to return, by the route of inductive science, to the great spiritual deductions of the ages - that All is One. But men are still puzzled, trying to reconcile the world of multiplicity - the objective world of many things - to their belief in the final necessity of Unity. Every great spiritual teacher has known that God is One - not two. they have also known that evil exists in the world - what we mean by evil is apparent limitation - poverty, sickness, death and what we call sin, which is nothing more than a mistake.
How are we going to reconcile suffering and lack with the Goodness of God? The difficulty is solved when we realize that all creation is an effect. It is real enough - as real as it is supposed to be. As you look about you, the mountain is a mountain, and the molehill is a molehill, the dust storm is a dust storm; but they are all effects. As you enter your garden and observe the bamboo tree, the grape fruit, and the many other variations of form, you see each is rooted in the one creative soil, and each is individualizing out of this creative soil that which is unique. The type maintains its integrity always.
We observe in creation an atomic intelligence, then a simple consciousness; after which comes a personal consciousness, then a Cosmic consciousness. These variations of consciousness are definitely defined and accepted by most investigators. As we watch the transition from the atomic to the simple intelligence, from the simple to the personal from the personal to the Cosmic, we find that we are merely going up a scale of Unity. The Spirit is not something apart from matter so-called, but is something working through matter; the potential possibility of what we call the highest and the lowest is inherent in everything. They are not different things. They are the same thing functioning at different levels. "It is neither Lo here nor Lo there, for behold the Kingdom of God is within."
There are different mental depths and heights fro which we may look out upon life; from whatever level we look, that which we see comes back to us by an invariable law of attraction. That which we look upon is real while we look at it. We arrive at a consciousness of Unity only in such degree as we see that what we are lookin FOR , we are looking WITH, and looking AT. Heaven is lost merely for the lack of a perception of harmony. Hell is the phantom abode of our morbid imaginations. Heaven and Hell are states of consciousness."
