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."

March 12 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS Concluded ~ Ernest Holmes

The following meditation is printed just as it was given in class and group work.

The Eternal Cycles of Life in Motion Fulfill My Faith

"This is another way of saying that something happens when a man believes.  Faith is operated upon by some principle which is a government of Law and Order, and which has within Itself the power to execute Itself.   Prayer is not to ask God to be God. There is a Supreme Intelligence in the Universe, we cannot tell It anything; what little we know, we have drawn from It.  There is an Absolute Spirit around us, It does not need our existence.  It has already surrendered Itself to us but we have not yet surrendered ourselves to It.  That is what prayer - or treatment - is for.  We do not pray the Principle of Peace to desist from confusion, but we seek that Peace that it shall enter into our confused souls.  Therefore, prayer or meditation is for the purpose of becoming receptive to the Divine Influx, which already owns everything, knows everything, governs all things, and creates what we need - if we but permit it to - in Its own Nature, which is goodness, truth and beauty.  Each turns to the within in something after this fashion:

'We let go of everything, drop every fear from our minds, drop all confusion from our thought, and enter into the inner secret communion with that great Reality, which is our Universal Self - God - in Whom we live and move and have our being.  We are conscious that this Divine Presence overshadows and indwells. It is both without this physical, mental being and within this physical, mental being.  Therefore, It is the spiritual Reality of the being, the I AM, which is Universal, Eternal, and Perfect.

Now this Spirit is our Spirit.  It is our life from which we now draw full, complete and perfect being.  This Divine Intelligence does govern us intelligently; It does direct us consciously, accurately, unerringly.  We surrender to It every fear, every sense of uncertainty of the future, every thought of any morbidity of the past.  We surrender all confusion and doubt, and we know that this Divine Influx removes every mental obstruction to peace; It removes every sense of condemnation and judgment, and we enter into the fulfillment of Its perfection now.  We believe if there is any part of our physical being which needs healing, It heals it; that that Power within us and around us which creates, can recreate, can make whole now.  We believe if there is any conflict in our mental being, it can be removed, because the Spirit is higher than the mind and more than the body, and we are dealing with that Spirit which, animating the mind with Divine Intelligence, produces an influx of spiritual life in the body, healing, without effort, both mind and body.  We relinquish, we let go, those things which bother us mentally or hurt us physically.  We know that the Divine Presence is the Eternal Healer, because It is the everlasting Giver of life.  And we know the Intelligence which created the Universe and projected it in form and governs it with perfect Law - that Divine Being directs our movements intelligently, coherently, constructively, certainly, bringing to each that life which he calls success and prosperity, happiness, fulfillment of life, action.  And we know that that Divine Being, governing everything out of Its own Nature, works without effort - Birthless and Deathless and Tireless, It moves through us to perfect ends, now.'"

The Eternal Cycles of Life in Motion Fulfill My Faith

January 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Causes and Conditions ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Mental Practice Deals Only with Thought

"The philosophy of spiritual mind healing is based upon the conception that we are living in a universe of Intelligence - spiritual Universe; that thought are things, that definite states of consciousness, as they become subjective, operate through a creative field and tend to reproduce themselves in form.

Therefore, it logically follows that this system of treatment is for the purpose of uncovering and neutralizing the wrong states of thought...of building in mind a concept of our spiritual birthright.  Thought which is built upon a realization of the divine Presence has the power to neutralize negative thought, to erase, it, just as light has the power to overcome darkness; not by combating darkness, but by being exactly what it is:  LIGHT.  "And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

Therefore, spiritual treatment does not concern itself with unpleasant conditions nor with imperfect manifestations, either in one's body or the body of one's affairs.  Treatment is for the purpose of inducing an interior awareness - an inner realization - in the mind of the practitioner, pertaining to the spiritual perfection of the person for whom he is working.

Changeless Reality

Spirit is Changeless Reality.  That which we call personality is the instrument through which Spirit operates, but Spirit can operate for the individual only by operating through him. Spirit is never bound by the form It takes, and is not affected by any apparent cause or condition, but is forever free.  Spirit not only fills all forms but surges around them and through them.  Ice is formed from water, all ice is some form of water.  Just so, god and man exist in an eternal state of Unity - the solid and the liquid are one substance.

We are dealing with an impersonal Principle.  It will operate for one just as quickly as for another, because It is Law.  Dare to speak, and to know that what you speak is the law unto the thing spoken regardless of what conditions exist.  One, alone, in consciousness with the Infinite, constitutes a complete majority.  Knowing this in your thought, work in perfect peace and calm.  ALWAYS EXPECT THE GOOD.  Have enthusiasm and, above all, have a consciousness of love - a radiant feeling flowing through your consciousness at all times.  Treat yourself until you have an inner sense of unity with all Good.