October 12 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Evolution (Concluded)

"Evolution, then, is not a thing in itself; it is an effect.  Behind all objective form, there is a subjective likeness which exactly balances and is the prototype of the form.  The thing involved perfectly balances the thing evolving from it.  Evolution is the time and the process through which Spirit unfolds!  In so far as any individual understands this mental Law, he is able to use it.  We must learn how It works and comply with the way It works.  Always, It is an obedient servant.  As a man sows, so also shall he reap.  Involution and evolution, the thought and the thing, the Word and the Law, the purpose and the execution...this is the sequence.

While there is liberty in the evolving principle, it is always in accord with certain fundamental laws of necessity.  It seems as though behind evolution there is an irresistible pressure, compelling more, better, higher and greater things.  For instance, if we study the evolution of locomotion, from the rising of man from the clod, we see him riding upon a horse, in a cart, in a wagon, and so on to the automobile and the airplane.   What is this but the evolution of locomotion, the unfolding through man's mind of the possibility of travel?  If we watch the evolution of travel by water, we find the same thing from the raft to modern ships.

What is the inevitable end of locomotion?  Could it be other than that we shall ultimately do away with ever visible means of transportation?  When we shall have unified with Omnipresence, we shall be omnipresent.

When we shall have arrived at a sufficient understanding,  our thought will take us where we wish to be.  When we know enough, we shall be able to pass on to another plane and come back again, if we wish to do so.  When we know enough to multiply the loaves and fishes, we shall do so.  When we know enough to walk on the water, we shall be able to do that and it will all be in accordance with natural law in a spiritual world."

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."

October 6 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

WHAT The MYSTICS HAVE TAUGHT
Ernest Holmes

Evolution

"The Universe, both visible and invisible, is a Spiritual System.  Man is a part of this Spiritual Order, so indivisibly united with It that the entire Cosmos is (or may be) reflected in his mind!  Evolution is the awakening of the soul to a recognition of its unity with the Whole.  Material evolution is an effect, not a cause.  This reverses the popular belief, declaring that evolution is the result of intelligence, rather than intelligence being the result of evolution!

The aim of evolution is to produce a man, who at the point of his objective thought may completely manifest the whole idea of life, may bring Unity to the point of particularization, finding nothing in the Law to oppose It.  The man Jesus became the Christ through a complete realization of the Unity of Spirit and the Absoluteness of His word.  His physical and spiritual faculties, His objective and subjective mind, were completely poised and perfectly balanced.

It is evident if this realization took place in any other individual, his word would be manifested likewise.  Because behind the word is Universal Soul, Omnipotent Law.  The Spirit is Limitless, but can only be to us what we believe It to be.  Why must we believe It is?  Because, UNTIL WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS, WE ARE BELIEVING THAT IT IS NOT!  It is all a matter of belief, but belief is scientifically induced into a subjective state, through conscious endeavor."

July 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE LAW of ATTRACTION
By Ernest Holmes

Attracting Success

"We mean by demonstration, bringing into our experience something which we had not experienced before; bringing it in as the result of conscious thought; and unless it is possible to do this, our whole science is a mistake and a delusion.  Unless there is a Divine Principle, Universal Soul or Subjectivity, or Medium, which, of Itself - without any help or assistance - can produce things, and will, then there is nothing in this teaching.  But there is a Divine Principle; and what It does for us It must do through us.  Our part in the demonstration is to set the word in motion, thus compelling, through the Law of Subjectivity, the result or manifestation. 

The subjective state of a man's thought decides what is going to happen to him in his objective experience.   The subjective state of his thought is the sum total of his thinking and knowing. It is the medium between the relative and the Absolute, between the Limitless and the conditioned.  Whatever is involved in it, will evolve.  Therefore, when there is no longer anything in our mentality which denies our word, a demonstration will be made; nothing can stop it, for the Law is Absolute.

We should approach the Law normally and naturally and with a sense of ease.  There is nothing peculiar or weird about it.  It is a natural Law, working in a normal way, and must be thought of in this light.  We should come to consider the Law and the Spirit as friends and think of them as such.  In this way we shall gradually go from good to more good and from peace to greater peace.  This is the natural unfoldment of Reality through man.  We should EXPECT THE BEST, and so live that the best may become a part of our experience.

Suppose one wishes more activity in his business, more success.  Every day he should see his place filled with people.  See them looking at and finding pleasure in his merchandise; see them comparing prices and realizing that he is offering good values; see them delighted with the service he is giving; see them cheerful, beaming, expansive, as they enjoy the atmosphere of his place; see the uplift which the spirit of his good-will gives them.  Make a mental picture of it all.  We are dealing with Intelligence, and we should recognize the Power we are working with - realizing our Oneness with It - and then we should ask for what we wish and take it.

If we were treating for activity in a store we owned in Boston, we should not be treating someone in Kalamazoo for the mumps and expect that the store would demonstrate more success.   WE MUST BE SPECIFIC IN WHAT WE DO, while at the same time never outlining how it shall be done.  Remember we are dealing with Intelligence.   IT IS GOING TO EVOLVE OUR CONCEPT EXACTLY AS WE INVOLVE IT.  If one could take a picture of his objective circumstances and a picture of his subjective mentality, he would find them to be identical, for one is the cause of the other.  One is the image and the other is the reflection of that image.

So our success in business, the activity which we generate through the operation of the Law, depends upon our ability to conceive.  At all times, we are either drawing things to us or pushing them away.  In the average individual, this process goes on without his knowing it, but ignorance of the law does not change its result.  "What," someone will say, "do you think that I thought failure or wanted to fail?"  Of course not.  Perhaps you thought that failure might come, maybe you even feared it would come, or in some other way gave it entrance to your mind."

May 11 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

We Are Allowed to Choose ~ Ernest Holmes

"Man has the ability to choose what he will do with his life, and is unified with a Law which automatically produces his choice.  While he does not have the ability to destroy the idea of himself, he does have the ability to deface it, to make it appear discordant, but he cannot destroy the Divine Image.  Man is an individual and does with himself what he wills.  The Scriptures say:  "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions."  Individuality cannot be automatically produced; it must be spontaneous.   It would not be individuality without the ability to think as it chose.

We live in a Universe of Love as well as a Universe of Law.  One is the complement of the other - the Universe of Love pulsating with feeling, with emotion, and the Universe of Law, the Executor of all feeling and all emotion.  In this lesson on healing, then, let us remember that back of the man which we see is the Divine Image.  There is perfect Concept of Man, held in the Mind of the Universe as an already accomplished fact, but man is subject to the law of his own choice.

Man Re-enacts God

Man is conscious mind or spirit; this stands for his objective faculty.  The objective mind of man is his recognition of life in a conscious state - it is the only attribute of man that is volitional, or self-choosing.  Consequently, it is the spiritual man.  The conscious mind of man is the contemplator.

Let us bear in mind what we have already learned:  that the Universe is the result of the contemplation of the Divine Mind, or the Holy Spirit, which is God.  God creates by contemplating His own I-AM-NESS, and this contemplation, through Law, becomes the objectification of the Self-Realization of the Infinite Mind.

The Divine Nature is re-enacted in man; he is conscious mind and spirit, and, as he contemplates, he reflects his thought into the Universal Subjectivity where it is received and acted upon.

As Mind, or Soul, accepts these images of thought, It operates upon unformed substance and causes it to take definite form as body, which is unconscious form.  It becomes definite form, but the form itself is unconscious, because it is made of immaterial substance.   Body, of itself, without Mind, has neither consciousness nor volition.  Devoid of mentality, the body neither thinks, sees, hears, feels, touches nor tastes.  Take the mentality away from a body and it becomes a corpse.  Having no conscious intelligence, it at once begins to disintegrate and to resolve into the Universal Substance, or unformed matter, from which it came.

Although man is inherently a perfect idea, his individuality covers this idea with the forms of thought which he images.  Man comes into this life subjective to the race consciousness and to his own environment, he unfolds his own personality and begins to crate new subjective thought.  He thinks and observes, draws certain conclusions and deductions, and incorporates them within his mentality, until at last they also become a part of the relative cause of his objective existence.

Healing, then is accomplished by uncovering, neutralizing and erasing false images of thought, and letting the perfect idea reflect itself through subjective mind into the body.

When one realizes that everything is Mind and that nothing moves but Mind, and that the only instrument of Mind is thought (which is contemplation in some form or other) he will see that nothing can permanently heal unless it be accompanied by right thinking."

May 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION ~ Ernest Holmes

What We Understand About Healing

"There is no question that people throughout the ages have been healed through prayer and faith, that they have mentally contacted a healing Law in this spiritual Universe of Law and Order.  How did they contact this Law?  All prayer is mental, being a certain mental attitude, a certain way of thinking, a certain way of believing, an uplifting process, a belief in God.  Some prayers fall short of this state, while others reach a state of spiritual awareness.

We come to understand, then, that the answer to prayer is in the prayer when it is prayed - the belief of the one praying sets in motion the Law of Love, which is the fundamental Law of the Universe.

Man's life, in reality, is spiritual and mental, and until his thought is healed, no form of cure will be permanent.  We understand that health is a mental as well as a physical state.  We seek to heal men's mentalities, knowing that to the degree in which we are successful, we shall also be healing their bodies.  We know, too, that to the degree in which we are able to see a perfect man, he will appear. We feel that the spiritual or real man is perfect and we seek to uncover this perfection which is within every man's life.  This is spiritual mind healing.

Man will deliver himself from sickness and trouble in exact proportion to his discovery of himself and his true relationship to the Whole.  Law is Law wherever we find it, and we shall discover that the Laws of Mind and Spirit must be understood, if they are to be consciously used for definite purposes.  The SPIRIT KNOWS and the LAW OBEYS.  Hidden away in the inner nature of real man, is the law of his life.

As the Laws of God are broad, so should we be in dealing with them.  In this Science, we believe that man's life is a drama which takes place on three planes:  the physical, the mental, and the spiritual.  We should have no objection to any form of healing, for anything that helps to overcome suffering is good, whether it be a pill or a prayer.  We believe in any method which produces results, for each has its place in the Whole.

We believe in every church and in all forms of worship.  Above all, we certainly believe in God!  Because Truth is Infinite, It must be continuously unfolding in the consciousness of man and no one will ever have a complete understanding of Truth.  A complete understanding of Truth would be a complete understanding of God, and a complete comprehension of God would be to become God.  We know that more light will be given as we use that which we have, and we repudiate any belief which says that all of Truth has been given."

February 24 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SUMMARY of PART ONE:  The Nature of Being ~ Ernest Holmes

"There is a Universal Presence that acts as though It were intelligent, and we may assume that It is.  There is a Universal Intelligence acting as Law - we may also assume this to be true. There is a formless Stuff in the Universe, forever taking form, and forever changing its form - this we may accept as being self-evident.

We have every reason  to postulate a three-fold nature of the Universal Being, which we shall call Spirit, Soul, and Body.  We shall think of Spirit as the great Actor, Soul as the Medium of Its action, and Body the result of Its action.  We shall think of Spirit as the only Conscious Actor - the Power that knows Itself.  We shall think of Soul as a blind Force, obeying the Will of Spirit; and we shall think of Body as the effect of Spirit, working through Law to produce form.  We shall assume that neither Law, nor the Stuff from which form comes, has conscious intelligence, but must because of their nature be formed by the Word.  This simplifies the whole matter and enables us to see that in the entire Universe, One Power alone really acts - the Power of the Word of Spirit, God, or Universal Conscious Intelligence.

The evolution of man brings him arbitrarily to a place where true individuality functions.  From that day, a further evolution must be through his conscious co-operation with Reality.  All Nature waits on man's recognition of a co-operation with her laws, and is always ready to obey his will; but man must use Nature's forces in accordance with her law, and in co-operation with her purpose - which is goodness, truth, and beauty - if he wishes to attain self-mastery.

Man never creates; he discovers and uses.  Through this method all sciences are evolved.  We live in a Universe of Law, through which runs a spirit of self-knowing Intelligence.  "All's Love, yet all is Law," mused Robert Browning. 

The Law has done all it can automatically do for man.  It has evolved him to a point of individuality and must now let him alone to discover the secrets of life for himself.  Man is potentially perfect but free-will and self-choice cause him to appear imperfect.  In reality all he can destroy is some particular embodiment of himself.  The divine spark is always intact in potential man.

Man awakes to self-consciousness, finding himself already equipped with a mentality, a body and an environment.  Gradually he discovers one law of nature after another, until he conquers his environment through his knowledge of the nature of those laws. Everywhere he finds that nature does his bidding, in so far as he understands her laws and uses them along the lines of their inherent being.  He must first obey  nature and she will then obey him.

Man discovers his ability to think and realizes that from within there comes a reaction to his thought.  He can think consciously and mental law acts upon his thought; and his physical body is affected by his thinking.

He next discovers that he can think for others, causing corresponding action in and through their bodies.  In this way, he discovers a  mental medium through which thought operates.  He realizes himself to be a thinking center in a Universal Mind.

Man next discovers that his affairs are primarily a thing of thought, and that being able to think for others he can also aid in the control of their affairs. He now realizes that everything in the visible world is an EFFECT; that back of all effects are ideas which are the real Cause of these effects.  The Divine Ideas are perfect, but man's freedom of individuality causes them to appear imperfect. Through right thinking, he is able to uncover the appearance of imperfection and reveal the Perfect Idea.  "Behold, thou, my face forevermore."

February 20 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

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."

February 15 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MAN'S RELATIONSHIP to the SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE ~ Ernest Holmes

Man Re-enacts the Nature of God

Whatever is true of the Universe as a Whole must also be true of the individual as some part of this Whole.  Man is evolved from the Universe as a self-conscious, thinking center of Living Spirit, and as such he must, in his nature and being, reproduce the Universe.

If we realize that God is "Triune" and that man is a spiritual likeness of God we shall see that the whole scheme of Life, and the whole nature of the Divine Being, is reenacted through man.  This, of course, does not mean that man is God.  It means that in his small world of individual expression, his nature is identical with God's.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, "As the Father hath life within Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life within himself."  This refers to the inherent Life, real Life.  That is the only life God could have.  We must expect to find in man, therefore, the same inherent attributes that we find in the Universe from which he springs.  A single drop of water is not the whole ocean, but it does contain within itself the same qualities and attributes.

Man is made out of and from Life.  As effect must partake of the nature of its cause, so man must partake of the Divine Nature from which he springs.  We did not create our nature; We cannot change its inherent reality; we are what we are and we use this nature for better or for worse.  Being what we are there are certain responsibilities that go with our natures - certain obligations; if our thought is creative and if we have selectivity - that is, volition and choice - and if we are unfolding to a discovery of our true nature, which must already be perfect, then the obligation and responsibility of this nature could impose freedom or bondage upon us temporarily, but our bondage cannot be real from the standpoint of the Absolute.

The World Has Learned All It Should Through Suffering

The Science of Mind and Spirit, makes a tremendous claim when it states that the individual should be free from the bondage of sickness, poverty and unhappiness.  It does, however, carefully set forth the conditions under which freedom operates and the laws governing Life, stating in no uncertain terms that unless man understands these conditions and obeys these laws, he will not receive full benefit from its teachings.

The world is beginning to realize that it has learned all it should through suffering and pain.  Surely there can be no Intelligence in the Universe that wishes man to be sick, suffer pain, be unhappy and end in oblivion.  Surely if God or Universal Intelligence is imbued with goodness, then It could not ordain that man should ultimately be other than a perfect expression of Life.

We have shown that man's nature is the same as God's Nature; we should have no intellectual difficulty in realizing that an Infinite Intelligence could not make an automatic individuality, and this explains why man suffers on his road to self-discovery.  His suffering is not God-ordained, because he creates his own experience as he becomes individualized.  By individuality is mean self-choice, volition, conscious mind, personified Spirit, complete freedom, and a POWER TO BACK UP THAT FREEDOM.  We cannot imagine a mechanical or unspontaneous individuality; to be real and free, individuality must be created in the image of Perfection and let alone to make the great discover for itself.

February 11 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Cause and Effect ~ Ernest Holmes

"Effect is that which did not make itself but must have a power back of it, causing it to be.  All manifestation, all body, is effect, and is subject to its cause!

The Creator is greater than His creation.  Everything we see, touch, taste, feel, hear or grasp with the physical senses, is an effect.  "Things which are seen are not made of things which do appear."  What we see comes from that which we do not see.

If self-knowingness is in Spirit, and if the Law which executes the volition of Spirit is entirely subconscious, or subjective to the Will of Spirit, it follows that both cause and effect are spiritual!  Involved within the idea which the Spirit drops into the Creative Medium, is everything necessary to bring this idea into form.  Spirit never thinks of methods or processes, for that which the Spirit involves must evolve!  The contemplation of Spirit, the Self-Knowingness of God, produces involution.  Evolution is the passing of thought into manifestation.

To put it another way:  All is Infinite Being and all is eternally becoming.  Infinite Being is Infinite Knowingness; as the result of this Infinite Knowingnesss, there is an Infinite Becomingness or Creation. The Infinite Knowingness produces what is called involution through the self-contemplation of Spirit.  As the result of this contemplation - the Word of the Bible - Creation is made manifest.  This is evolution.

Evolution is the process, the way, the time, and the experience that transpires as Thought - or Intelligence, or Idea, or Contemplation - passes from abstract Being into concrete expression.  Consequently, evolution is an effect of intelligence and not the cause of it!  EVOLUTION IS NOT CREATING INTELLIGENCE; INTELLIGENCE IS PROJECTING EVOLUTION.  We do not deny the theory of evolution; we affirm its cause to be Intelligence, operating as Consciousness and Law."

January 18 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Scientific Method ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

If we observe any scientific discovery, we shall see that this is the way it works.  Some man's mind discovers the law, or principle, governing the science; this is the way of Love, of personal volition, of choice - this is the spontaneous element in the universe.  Following this knowledge of the way the principle works - having discovered the operation of the Law - the spontaneous element now rests its case on immutable reactions inherent in the Law.  All science is based upon proven principles.

But we should not overlook the significant fact that it is the MIND which discovers and makes use of the mechanical law!  Is not this mind the Spirit in us?  We can never completely fathom the Infinite Mind:  we shall always be discovering new lands.  Consequently, evolution is an eternal unfoldment of the more yet to be.

Since it is the mind which must first come to see, know and understand - and since all future possibility for the race must first find an avenue of outlet through someone's mind - we shall do well to look to the mind for the answer to all our problems.

Undoubtedly we are surrounded by, and immersed in, a perfect Life:  a complete, normal, happy, sane, harmonious and peaceful existence.  But only as much of the Life as we embody will really become ours to use.  As much of this Life as we understand and embody will react as immutable law - the reaction of the mechanical to the volitional.  The concept is wonderful and fraught with tremendous significance.  In it is bound up our hopes and fears, our expectations, and our future and present realizations.

Since an understanding of any law must pass first through our conscious mind before we can make use of it, it follows that with all our getting, we should get understanding.  Should we wish to know a certain truth, we should state that this truth is already known in Mind and this statement will be true, but the Over-Mind must be accepted into our mind before we can understand It.  How, then, are we to accomplish the desired result?  By stating and feeling that our mind knows the truth about the thing we desire to know.  In this way we draw the Infinite Mind into our mentalities, for definite knowledge of some particular good.

Contains All Knowledge

The Universal Mind contains all knowledge. It is the potential ultimate of all things.  To It, all things are possible.  To us, as much is possible as we can conceive, according to law.  Should all the wisdom of the universe be poured over us, we should yet receive only that which we are ready to understand.  This is why some draw one type of knowledge and some another, and all from the same source - the Source of all knowledge.  The scientist discovers the principles of his science, the artist embodies the spirit of his art, the saint draws Christ into his being - all because they have courted the particular presence of some definite concept.  Each state of consciousness taps the same source, but has a different receptivity.  Each receives what he asks for, according to his ability to embody.  The Universal is Infinite; the possibility of differentiating is limitless.

Life always becomes to us the particular thing we need when we believe that It becomes to us that particular thing.  The understanding of this is the essence of simplicity.  As all numbers proceed from the fundamental unit, as all material forms are but different manifestations of one formless stuff, so all things proceed from that which is neither person, place nor thing, but is the essence of all things.

Our thought and conscious receptivity differentiate this Universal Possibility, by drawing It through our minds and causing It to flow into particular channels, through the conscious receptivity of our different faiths.  One state of consciousness will differentiate one kind of a result, another mental state a different manifestation.

Mental Work is Definite

Mental work is definite.  Each state of thought taps the same Principle, each uses the same Law, is inspired by the same Spirit, but each draws forth a different result.  Here is multiplicity proceeding from Unity.  This is what Emerson meant when he said that Unity passes into variety.

But, someone will ask, can we bring out both good and evil from the One Source?  Of course not.  The First Principle is goodness, and only in so far as our thought and action tend toward a constructive program, will it eventually succeed.  We cannot fight the Universe.  It refuses to be budged from Its course.  We can only go with It.

But there is ample latitude for personal expression.  How then, are we to know what is right and what is wrong?  We are not GOING to know; we already do know.  Every man knows right from wrong, in its broadest sense.

It should be considered right to live and to enjoy living.  To be well, happy, and to express freedom, is to be in accord with Divine Law and Wisdom. Here is latitude enough for the most expectant, and the most enthusiastic.

January 17 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

What It Does ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We should approach the study of this Science rationally, never expecting to drive any benefits from it that its Principle does not contain.  For while it is true that we are immersed in an Infinite Intelligence, a Mind that knows all things, it is also true that this Intelligence can acquaint us with Its ideas only as we are able and willing to receive them.  The Divine Mind is Infinite.  It contains all knowledge and wisdom, but, before It can reveal Its secrets, It must have an outlet.  This outlet we shall be compelled to supply through our own receptive mentalities.

All invention, art, literature, government, law and wisdom that has come to the race has been given to it through those who have deeply penetrated the secrets of nature and the mind of God.

Perhaps the simplest way to state the proposition is to say that we are surrounded by a Mind, or Intelligence, that knows everything; that the potential knowledge of all things exists in this Mind; that the abstract essence of beauty, truth and wisdom co-exist in the Mind of the Universe; that we also exist in It and may draw from It.  BUT WHAT WE DRAW FROM IT WE MUST DRAW THROUGH THE CHANNEL OF OUR OWN  MINDS.  A unity must be established, and a conscious connection must be made, before we can derive the benefits which the greater Mind is willing to reveal or impart to us.

The Spirit can give us only what we can take; It imparts of Itself only as we partake of Its nature.  It can tell us only what we can understand.  The Infinite Knowingness becomes our wisdom only in such degree as we embody Its Intelligence.  It has been said that we can know God only in so far as we can become God.  This is a far-reaching thought and should be carefully scrutinized.  It is to be taken figuratively and not too literally, for we cannot really become God, but we can and do partake of the Divine Nature, and the Universal does personify Itself through man in varying degrees, according to man's receptivity to It.

The Universe Impersonal

The Universe is impersonal.  It gives alike to all.  It is no respecter of persons.  It values each alike.  Its nature is to impart, ours to receive.  When we stand in the light, we cast a shadow across the pathway of our own experience.  Emerson advises that we get our bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine circuits.

A Riddle of Simplicity

It is a beautiful and true thought to realize that every man stands in the shadow of a mighty Mind, a pure Intelligence, and a Divine givingness!  Not alone unto the great comes the soft tread of the Unseen Guest.  The arrogant have not perceived the simplicity of faith, but the pure in heart see God.  The farmer has seen the Heavenly Host in his fields.  The child has frolicked with Him at play.  The mother has clasped Him to her breast and the fond lover has seen Him in the eyes of his beloved.  We look too far away for Reality.

The intelligence by and through which we perceive that there is a Spiritual Presence and an Infinite Mind in the Universe, constitutes our receptivity to It, and decides Its flow through us.  We have made a riddle out of simplicity; therefore, we have not read the sermons written in stones, nor interpreted the light of love running through life.

To return to a sane simplicity is one of the first and most important things to do.  All men receive some light, and this light is always the same light.  There is one nature diffused throughout all nature; One God incarnated in all peoples.

The Divine Incarnation is inherent in our nature.  We are immersed in an Infinite Knowingness.  the question is, how much of this Realty are we going to express in our own lives?  The direct approach is always the best and the most effective.  In so far as any man has spoken the truth, he has proclaimed God -- it matters not what his particular approach may have been.  The scientist and the philosopher, the priest and the professor, the humanitarian and the empire builder, all have caught some gleam of the eternal glory and each has spoken, in his own tongue, that language which is of itself Universal.

Let us do away with a ponderosity of thought and approach the thing simply and quietly. It is the nature of the Universe to give us what we are able to take.  It cannot give us more.  It has given all, we have not yet accepted the greater gift.

Spiritual wisdom says that God manifests through everything and is incarnated in all men; that all is Divinity and that Nature herself is the body of God. The mechanical laws of nature are set and immutable, but the spontaneous recognition of these laws gives us the power to bring them into practical use in everyday life and experience.

Here we have a dual unity; law and order, spontaneous choice, volition, conscious action, and automatic reaction.  The laws of the universe are to be trusted but we must come to understand them before we can use them.  Once understood, any law is available and is impersonally responsive to each and all alike.

Love Rules Through Law

In an intelligent study of the teachings of the Science of Mind, we come to understand that all is Love and yet all is Law.  Love rules through Law.  Love is the Divine Givingness; Law is the Way.  Love is spontaneous; Law is impersonal.  We should study the nature of Reality with this in mind, and in this way we shall avoid two grave mistakes:  either viewing life as made up only of mechanical laws, or viewing it as made up only of spontaneous actions, irrespective of law and order.

As we gain the broader viewpoint, we shall see that Life must contain two fundamental characteristics.  We shall see that there is an Infinite Spirit, operating through an Infinite and Immutable Law.  In this, Cosmos, and not chaos, finds an eternal existence in Reality.  Love points the way and Law makes the way possible."

January 16 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Mental Laws ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"As we think of the medium of radio transmission in terms of law, so we should think of the Mental Medium in terms of law, for the Mental Medium must be the Law of mental action.  While we might think of It as the Mind of God, we could not think of It as the Spirit of God; for the Mental Medium is automatic, while the Spirit must be Self-Knowing. We could not call the Universal Medium of Mind "God" any more than we could call electricity "God."  The Universal Medium of Mind is but one of the many attributes of God, the avenue through which God operates as Law.

We should differentiate between Universal Mind and Universal Spirit. As we examine the Subjective, we find It to be both intelligent and conscious, without knowing that It is intelligent, and without being self-conscious.  All law must be subjective; the soil knows how to take a seed and make a plant from it; it does not know whether it is making a tomato or a potato. If this were not true of the laws of nature, we could not depend upon them, we should be confronted with caprice.  One of the most difficult problems to realize is that when we are dealing with the Law of Mind, we are dealing with an absolutely impersonal thing.  It knows how to create without knowing what It creates.  Therefore, we must distinguish between the Law of Mind and the Spirit which uses the Law.  The ancients taught that there is an Infinite Self-Knowing Spirit (one of the oldest sayings in the world is:  "Spirit is the Power that knows Itself.") in addition to which there is an Infinite Law which knows how to do but does not care what It does.  This Law is the Karmic Law of Buddha:  "The Law that binds the ignorant and frees the wise," as Anna Besant stated it.  It is the Cause and Effect of the West; but It is not to be confused with Kismet, which is fate, because Its tendency can be changed.

There is a Law in the Universe which operates in a certain way according to the tendency set in motion, and does so mathematically, inexorably.  We cannot destroy the Law but we can re-direct Its movement.  Just as we plant seeds and later decide we wish something else, we go out and uproot the first seeds and plant others in their place.  We are not thereby destroying the soil; we have simply determined to use it in a different way.  When we are dealing with Subjectivity, we are always dealing with that which is subject to the conscious volition. 

The conscious volition in the Universe is what is meant by the Spirit or Dog.  The Mental Medium, the Universal Subjectivity, the Law, is the doer of the Word!  Plotinus speaks of it as a doer but not a knower.  He called it a blind force, not knowing only doing.

This is the principle which we use in practice.  We should distinguish between conscious volition as Spirit, and the Subjective Law, which works  with intelligence but not self-conscious awareness.  When this is realized we shall no longer be superstitious about our use of the Law.  It has been difficult to get away from such a superstitious reaction, because of a theological rather than a scientific approach to the subject.  The Law we are discussing is simply a law of Nature, a force of Nature.  It happens to be a mental force, and an intelligent and creative one, like electricity, which will either light our house and cook our food or will electrocute us if we use it incorrectly.

The Threefold Nature of God

We find, then, as we study our own being we begin to deduce what the nature of God, or the Universal Being, is.  There is no way we can know God except by studying man.  Someone may say, "God reveals Himself;" yes, we think God reveals Himself to us, but only by revealing Himself through us.  We know about God only as we judge what God must be, by studying the nature of those things which we can somewhat analyze, plus that intuitive feeling we have of eternal verities.

If we study the true nature of man, then we shall have delved into the real nature of God, or First Cause, from which man springs.  As we have found that man is threefold in his nature, we must deduce that God is threefold in His Nature, i.e. that God is Spirit, or Self-Knowingness; God is Law and action; God is result or Body.  This is  the inner teaching of "The Trinity."  God, as Self-Knowing Spirit means the Divine Being Whom we have always thought of and believed in, the Being to Whom we have prayed and Whom we have adored.  God as Law means the way in which Spirit works, and Law in this sense would be the servant of the Spirit.  God as Body means the manifestation of the Spirit.

Trinity of Being

This trinity of being appears to run through all Nature and all life.  For instance, there is electricity, the way it works and its results, which is light or motive power.  There is the seed, the creative medium of the soil, and the plant. 

Turn it as we may, we are confronted with the necessity of a Trinity of Being.  Throughout the ages, this Trinity has been taught.  Every great religion and every great spiritual philosophy has taught this Trinity.  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the Christian Trinity.  It is the Thing, the Way It Works, and What It Does.  The Thing is Absolute Intelligence; the way It works, is Absolute Law; and What It does, is the result - manifestation.  The action of the Thing Itself is what the Bible calls "The Word."....Absolute Intelligence."

January 13 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

MIND...The Greatest Discovery ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Nature Waits on Man's Self-Recognition

"Nothing is more apparent than that man, as he now appears, is the result of evolution.  But in order to evolve, he had to have a Principle from which to unfold.  Since man is intelligent, he must have evolved from an Intelligent Cause.

In studying the order of man's evolution, it seems certain that it was necessary - from the time that he was brought to a point of self-choice--that he be left alone to discover his true nature. If man is endowed with the attributes of self-choice and free will, he must be allowed to make this great discovery for himself.  Even God could not make a mechanical individual.  Consider any of Nature's forces, they must have existed always, but, so far as man is concerned, they exist to be used only after he has discovered them and learned how to make use of them.  Electricity was a reality in the universe when Moses led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but neither Moses nor any of his followers knew anything about it.  This is true of all natural laws; they have always existed but only when understood may they be used.  In this way, Life waits upon man's discovery of natural laws, his discovery of  himself, and his discovery of his relationship to the great Whole.

The principle of any science is invisible, theoretical, as is our idea of Spirit. No one has seen God; no one has seen Life; what we have seen is the manifestation of Life.  No one has seen Intelligence; we experience It.  No one has ever seen Causation; we see what It does, we deal with Its effects.  We cannot see Beauty.  The artist feels beauty and depicts it as best he can, and the result of his effort is what we call the beautiful  The mathematician solves a problem, but the problem is not the Principle of Mathematics; the solution of the  problem is an effect or a result of the application of the principle.  We do not see Life, we experience living.  Causation is invisible.

The First Great Discovery

The first great discovery man  made was that he could think.  This was the day when he first said "I am."  This marked his first day of personal attainment.  From that day, man became individual and had to make all further progress himself.  from that day, there was no compulsory evolution; he had to work in conscious union with Life.

The basis from which man is evolving is Infinite.  Behind him is the Great Unknown but not the great unknowable.  As the result of the discovery that he could think, plan and execute, man has built up a great civilization; he has perceived that Nature works through him in order to work for him.  He has harnessed electricity, compelled steam to do his bidding, conquered the air, built cities, made the desert to bloom, and has thrown the lines of his commerce around the globe.  Indeed, he has seemed to possess the earth during this process, even though little attention has been given to that still, small voice which said:  "Man, know thyself." 

The Greatest Discovery of All Time...Mind

Man's first discovery of his ability to think was taken as a matter of fact.  He had always been able to think.  It was proof that he existed; it gave him the ability to know his needs and to supply them.  It appeared to be an automatic thing; it came with him and would doubtless die when he died.  The brain seemed to be the organ of thought, and of course, when death stilled the brain it would no longer operate.

However, a day came when some wise man claimed that it was not the brain that does the thinking, for if the brain could think it would keep on thinking when removed from the body; yet without a brain a man could not think which proved that something behind the brain used it as an instrument.  Man does think, so behind the brain there must be a thinker.  But where is the thinker?  We do not see him.  Have we a right to say there is a thinker, when we have never seen him?  Yes, for the proof of this reality is the evidence of his thought.  Back of the organism is the thinker and the doer - the Mind.  This was the greatest discovery of all time for it mean that  the body without the thinker could not function.  At first, man did not perceive this and thought only of his body as self-operating, but when he discovered this was not the case, he found that he could consciously think and decide, and that something happened to his thoughts after he thought them; they went somewhere and returned to him as  memory."

January 10 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

The Voice of God in Creation by Ernest Holmes ~ The Science of Mind

"The argument has been something after this manner: The Ultimate Cause back of all things must be ONE, since Life cannot be divided against Itself.  The Infinite must be ONE for the could not be two Infinite Beings.  Whatever change takes place must take place with this ONE.  But this ONE must be Changeless, for being One and Only, It could not change into anything but Itself.

All seeming change is merely the play of Life upon Itself; and all that happens must happen by and through some inner action upon Itself.  What would be the nature of this inner action?  It could not be physical - as we understand physics - but would have to be by the Power of some inner movement of Life, i.e., the Voice of God - God standing for the First Great and Only cause of all that is.

The Thought of God - The Word of God

The World of God means the power of Spirit to declare Itself into manifestation, into form.  The word of God means the Self-Contemplation of Spirit.  The manifest universe, as we see it, as well as the Invisible Universe which must also exist, is the result of the Self-Contemplation of God.  'He spake and it was done.'  'The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.'  The starting point of all creation is the Word of Spirit.  The Word is the Concept, Idea, Image or thought of God.  It is the Self-Knowing Mind, speaking Itself into manifestation.  The Word back of everything is its Initial Cause.

The term "thought" seems to mean more to us than any other term, in this connection.  It seems to cover the meaning better, for we know that thought is an inner process of consciousness.  The Thought of God must be the Cause of all that really exists; and as there are many existing things, there must be many thoughts in the Mind of the Infinite.  This is logical to suppose, for an Infinite Mind would necessarily conceive an infinite variety of ideas.  Hence the world of multiplicity or many things.  But the world of multiplicity does not contradict the world of Unity, for the many live in the One.  This concept of Unity is the mystical secret of the ages, the key to spiritual wisdom and to the teaching of Jesus.

Spirit Knows Itself

It is impossible to conceive of anything other than the Word of God being that which sets power in motion.  God speaks and it is done!  It is evident that First Cause must be Self-Existent, i.e., It must be Causeless.  Nothing could come before That Which was First.  Hence the Being Whom we call GOD must be Self-Existent.  GOD SPEAKS AND IT IS DONE.  If God speaks, His Word must be Law.  The Word of God is also the Law of God.  GOD IS WORD, GOD IS LAW, GOD IS SPIRIT.  This is self-evident.  We arrive at the conclusion that God as Spirit is Conscious Life.  This is the inner meaning of the teaching of the "I AM."

Volition

There is but one volitional factor in the Universe, and this is Spirit, or the Self-Knowing Mind.  God did not make God, this is self-evident.  God did not make Law; Law is Co-Eternal with God.  God did not make Substance, this is also Co-Existent and Co-Eternal with God. BUT GOD DID MAKE, AND DOES MAKE, and IS MAKING AND WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE, FROMETERNITY TO ETERNITY, FORMS.  We life in a universe of Infinite Substance and numberless forms, where in nothing is moved unless Intelligence moves it, in accord with law.

It follow that everything that Spirit thinks must take form.  The Spirit, being Self-conscious Life, knows and cannot stop knowing.  To suppose that It could stop knowing would be to suppose that It could stop being!  Since It cannot stop knowing, It must forever be setting in motion the Law of Its being, which Law must forever be projecting the form of Its thoughts, thereby producing things.  Creation is always beginning but never ending. The slightest thought of Intelligence sets power in motion through the Law, producing a corresponding thing.  Things may come and things may go, but Creation goes on forever.  This is, indeed, a wonderful concept, for it means that there will always be a manifestation of Divine Ideas. They cannot cease so long as God exists, and since God will forever be there will forever be some kind of manifestation.  The Invisible will always be made manifest on some plane.

January 9 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Describing the Infinite by Ernest Holmes ~ "The Science of Mind"

"Any account of Creation however brief implies, first of all, a Universal Intelligence which is omniscient, all-knowing.  We call this Intelligence God.  In philosophy, the word Reality is used. In science, the word Principle.  The Reality of philosophy, the Principle of science and the God of religion all have much the same meaning - the nature of the Universe in which we live.  We describe It as God, Spirit, Reality, Truth - Absolute Intelligence.

Absolute Intelligence

We believe in an Absolute Intelligence because such an intelligence is manifest throughout the universe in which we live.  Wherever we look we see It at work, whether it be the intelligence in the atom or the convolution of thought operating through the brain of a Socrates or an Einstein.  Consequently, we state our First Principle as an Absolute Intelligence.  It is impossible for thought - whether it be philosophic, scientific or religious (and these are the founts from which we gather knowledge) - to deny such Intelligence. 

We believe in an Absolute Intelligence and an Absolute Consciousness.  We are in the universe and we are conscious, so we have reason to believe that consciousness exists.

Creation means the giving of form to the Substance of Mind or Spirit.  Spirit being All and Only, there is nothing for It to change into but Itself.  Therefore, It is the Changeless, within which must take place all change or manifestation of Itself.  The Infinite of Itself is Formless but within It are contained all the forms which give expression to Its consciousness.  Spirit is the Limitless within which is all space.  Spirit is Timeless, within which is all time.  Creation and experience are eternally going on, but any particular experience is measured by time and has a beginning and an end.

In the beginning of any creative series there is Absolute Intelligence alone, pure Spirit, all-inclusive, everywhere, infinite.  This All-Spirit could not have the impulse to move unless It were conscious.  Therefore, "Spirit is the Power that knows Itself."  The account of Creation, which says "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," does not refer to a time when there was no creation, but rather to the process of an eternal creation, which is a continual manifestation of Spirit.  An eternal creation is proved by the fact that we must suppose Spirit to be Conscious Intelligence, and there can be no Conscious Intelligence unless It is conscious of something!  Spirit is conscious and must be conscious of something.  Therefore, It must always create. What a glorious concept is such an idea of an Eternal Creative Principle.  There is no stagnation in spirit, nor should there be any in our idea of spirituality.  To be spiritual is to create!  The Spirit is alive, conscious, aware and active.

A Deep Inquiry

If we were to examine the basic principles of the religions of the world, we would find a great similarity.  Each points to One central Life, from Whose Self-Existence all draw their livingness, and without which nothing could exist.  The Christian Religion gives more value to the individual life than do most others. That is why it has made such an appeal to the more vital races of the world.  In  many respects, the Christian Bible is the greatest book ever written, and does truly point a way to eternal values.  But it is only ONE explanation and cannot be considered the ONLY light on religion, for there are may others whose combined teachings weave the story of Truth into a complete and unified pattern.

The deep thinkers of antiquity, as well as the philosophers of all ages, have meditated long and earnestly upon the nature of the Divine Being.  Knowing that there could be but One Ultimate Reality back of all things, they have pondered deeply as to the nature of that Reality, and it is significant that most of the great thinkers have arrived at similar conclusions."

January 8 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

"In the Beginning, God!"  Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

(Blogger's Note: For the purposes of this writing, the pronoun He, Him has been changed to It when referring to "God")

The Beginning

We wish to discover what to believe in, why we believe in it, and why such a belief is reasonable; and in so far as possible to enter into the nature of the invisible Cause of this manifest life of ours.  We wish to discover how this Cause works; Its relationship to us and our relationship to It, and how we may use this knowledge.  The world is tired of mysteries, does not understand symbols, and longs for Reality.  What is Reality, where may It be found and how used?  These are some of the questions one should like to have answered.

"In the beginning, God!" In the beginning, Spirit or Intelligence only.  No manifest universe!  No system of planets!  No visible form, nothing but the Life Principle.  God, the Spirit, had not yet moved upon the waters.  Then this All-Being moved or began to create.  Where did Spirit move?  Upon what did It move?  From whence came Its pattern?  What means or power did It employ?  Through what agencies did It work?  In short, out of what is the world, ourselves included, made?  How did we and all other physical manifestations come into being?

If we suppose Spirit to be the Life Principle running through all manifestation, the Cause of all, then we must supposed that It has Substance within Itself.  It is Self-Existent Consciousness, and also Self-Existent Substance.  SPIRIT MAKES THINGS OUT OF ITSELF THROUGH SOME INNER ACT UPON ITSELF.  This inner act must, of course, be an ace of consciousness, of self-perception, of self-knowingness.  What God knows IS.  This has been called the Word of God and the Self-Contemplation of God.

The Story of Creation Simplified

Without repeating the well-known account (rather accounts, for there are two) of Creation, as given in the Bible, let us say that someone - generally thought to have been Moses - in expounding his idea of how Creation came into being, put his thoughts into the form of an allegory or symbolic story.  Let us restate this story, in our own words, and see what we shall have:

God (meaning the Supreme Spirit or Intelligence of the Universe) was conscious of Itself, prior to the creation of any special world system. Being thus conscious, and desiring to manifest in form, It did so manifest through the power of It's Word, which is Law.  God is not only pure Spirit or Intelligence, It is Universe through the power of It's word).  Hence, when It speaks, It's Word becomes Law.  The Law must obey.  The Law is mechanical, the Word is spontaneous.  God cannot speak a word which contradicts It's own nature.

Since God is pure Intelligence and endless Being, It is always creating.  It is It's nature to create but being All It must act within Itself.

The World of God, spoken within Itself, sets the Law (which is also in Itself) in motion.  The result is Creation.  The Word is the mold, which acting through Law produces form.  As there are many words so there are many forms, each distinct and each an individualized idea of God.

Since the Word of God is permanent, when It speaks, that Word is equipped to perpetuate Itself, even as the seed contains within itself all that is necessary for the reproduction of its kind.  It does not become another kind, for this would produce confusion and the Divine Mind is never confused.

God made the mechanical universe, the plant and animal life, but this did not satisfy It, for It wished to create a being who could respond to and understand It.  So It created a being who had real life within itself.

It could do this only by imparting It's own nature to this being whom It called man.  It must make man in Its own image and likeness.  Man must be created out of the stuff of Eternity, if he is to have real being.  Humanity must partake of the nature of Divinity if it is to have real life.  So God made man from the essence of Itself and clothed this subtle essence with definite form.

And God said within Itself something after this fashion:  "If I wish to have a man who is a real being, I must give him self-choice.  He must be spontaneous, not automatic.  He must have dominion over everything I have created and he shall have all things to enjoy, for his life must be full and complete if he is to express My nature."

So God gave man dominion over all earthly things.  Man was not given the power to govern the universe, but he was given the power to have dominion.

And God viewing all that It had created saw that it was good, "very good."  How could it be otherwise since It had created it?  How could God, being Goodness, see other than good?

This, briefly, is the story of Creation.  The reader need not be startled by this rather human narrative.  Remember we are putting into human language a story which can only be imagined.  Let us see how much of this may have meaning for us - how much of it we may prove.

January 6 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

There Are Not Two Minds, Only Two Names ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"Mind - the Thing, Spirit, Causation - is beyond, and yet not beyond, our grasp. Beyond, in that It is so big; within, in that wherever we grasp at It, we are It to the extent that we grasp It; but, since It is infinite, we can never encompass It.  We shall never encompass God, and yet we shall always be in God and of God!

Mind comes under two classifications.  There are not two minds; but rather two names employed in describing states of consciousness:  the objective, or conscious and the subjective, or unconscious.  We think of the conscious state as our conscious use of mind.  The subconscious (or subjective) state of mind - sometimes called the unconscious state - is that part of mind which is set in motion as a creative thing by the conscious state.

In the body of this textbook, under the heading of "Subjective Mind," we say:  "In the Subjective Mind of man, we find a law obeying his word, the servant of his spirit.  Suggestion has proved that the subconscious mind acts upon our thoughts.  It is the mental law of our being, and the creative factor within us.  It is unnecessary, at this point, to go into all the details of the subjective Mind and its mode of action; it is enough to say that within us is a mental law, working out the will and purposes of our conscious thoughts.  This can be no other than our individual use of that greater SUBJECTIVE MIND, which is the seat of all mental law and action, and is 'The Servant of the Eternal Spirit throughout the ages.'"

January 5 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

The Universe Never Plays Favorites by Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We are so used to the thought that if we mix certain colors we get certain other colors, that we do not realize we are dealing with a principle.  We know that whoever blends those particular colors will get the same result, but we do not know why; THE WISEST MAN LIVING DOES NOT KNOW WHY!  We do not have to stretch our credulity any more in metaphysics.

We think of metaphysics, perhaps, as something that only the most profound thinkers have known about, but we should remember that we also are thinkers.  The profound thought of all ages has stood in awe of Life itself, realizing that here is a power and potentiality, the highest possibilities of which the human intellect cannot fathom.

Universal principles are never respecters of persons; the Universe has no favorites. Therefore, it is written:  "and let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."  (Rev. 22:17)


Nothing Supernatural about the Study of Life

Let us then approach the Science of Mind - the Science of Spiritual Psychology - with awe, but not with fear; with truly a humble thought, but not with a sense that we are unworthy.  Let us approach it normally, happily, willing to accept, glad to experiment, hoping and believing that as the result of our efforts we shall each derive a great good - a sound understanding of the natural laws of Life, as they apply to the individual and his relationship to the whole universal scheme of things.

This is the simple meaning of true metaphysical teaching, the study of Life and the nature of the Law, governed and directed by thought; always conscious that we live in a spiritual Universe; that God is in, through, around and for us.  There is nothing supernatural about the study of Life from the metaphysical viewpoint.  That which today seems to us supernatural, after it is thoroughly understood, will be found spontaneously natural.

We all know that many have been healed of physical disease through prayer.  Let us analyze this.  Why are some healed through prayer while others are not?  Can we believe that there is a God who picks out some man and says, "I will honor your prayer, but I do not think so much of Mr. So and So"?  It is superstitious to believe that God will answer the prayer of one above another.  Jesus said that God "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."  (Matt. 5:45)

Since some people have been healed through prayer, while others have not, the answer is NOT that God has responded to some and not to others, but that some have responded to God more than others.  Their prayer (their thought) has responded by corresponding.  The answer to prayer is in the prayer.  But what is a prayer?  A prayer is a movement of thought, within the mind of the one praying, along a definite line of meditation; that is, for a specific purpose.

What is the mind?  No man living knows.  We know a great deal about the mind, but not what it is.  By mind, we mean consciousness.  We are now using it.  We cannot locate mind in the body, for, while the body is a necessary vehicle for consciousness while we are here, it is not consciousness.  We cannot isolate mind.  All we know about it is not what it is, but what it does, and the greatest philosopher who ever lived knows no more than this...except that he may tell us more of how it works.

January 4 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

The Thing Itself - Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We all look forward to the day when science and religion shall walk hand in hand through the visible to the invisible.  Science knows nothing of opinion, but recognizes a government of law whose principles are universal.  Yet any scientist who refuses to accept intangible values has no adequate basis for the values which he has already discovered.  Revelation must keep faith with reason, and religion with law - while intuition is ever spreading its wings for greater flights - and science must justify faith in the invisible.

To suppose that the Creative Intelligence of the Universe would create man in bondage and leave him bound would be to dishonor the Creative Power which we call God.  To suppose that God could make man as an individual, without leaving him to discover himself, would be to suppose an impossibility. Individuality must be spontaneous; it can never be automatic.  The seed of freedom must be planted in the innermost being of man, but, like the Prodigal Son, man must make the great discovery for himself.

We see abundance in the Universe. We cannot count the grains of sand on a  single beach.  The earth contains untold riches, and the very air is vibrant with power.  Why, then, is man weak, poor and afraid?  The Science of Mind deals with these questions.  The Divine Plan is one of Freedom; bondage is not God-ordained.  Freedom is the birthright of every living soul.  All instinctively feel this.  The Truth points to freedom, under Law.  Thus the inherent nature of man is forever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom.  We do well to listen to this Inner Voice, for it tells us of a life wonderful in its scope; of a love beyond our fondest dreams; of a freedom which the soul craves.

But the great Love of the Universe must be One with the great law of Its Own Being, and we approach Love through the Law. This, then, is the teaching:  Love and Law.  As the love of God is perfect, so the law of God is also is perfect.  We must understand both.

Whatever the nature of any principle may be - in so far as it is understood by anyone - it may be understood by all who take the time to investigate.  This does not require an unusual degree of intelligence, but, rather, a practical application of what we now know in order that we may increase our knowledge.  The study of the Science of Mind is a study of First Cause, Spirit, Mind, or that invisible Essence, that ultimate Stuff and Intelligence from which everything comes, the Power back of creation - the Thing Itself.

We accept this "thing" and believe in It.  What we desire is to know more about It, and how to use It.  From proof alone, we know we are dealing with a definite principle. If one (through the conscious use of his knowledge) can produce a certain result, he must know with what he is dealing.

It may seem as though, in dealing with metaphysics, we are dealing with something that is too abstract.  But what is tangible other than results?  Principles are forever hidden from our eyes.  We accept the deductions of science in so far as they are provided, and we recognize that they are built upon immutable, but invisible principles."