May 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Spirit and Mental Law ~ Ernest Holmes

"It is impossible to divorce spiritual understanding from the proper use of mental law. The Spirit within man is God, and only to the degree that we listen to and seek to obey this Spirit shall we really succeed.  At present very few people differentiate between the Spirit of the Universe and the Law of the Universe.  The Spirit of God, which we think of as the Heavenly Father, is a Divine Presence, while the Law is a mechanical force.

The electrician may be a Methodist or Catholic or Buddhist.  He may be a spiritual man or a material-minded man, but electricity, being a natural law, can be used by one man as easily as by another.  It will work here, there and anywhere.  This does not seem strange to us, but often when we approach things which seem to be religious and spiritual, we think, "Now we are outside the realm of Law, God is good, therefore Law no longer exists."  We fail to recognize with Browning that "All's love, yet all's law."  We must differentiate between the Divine Presence as a Universal Spirit - a thing to be communed with - and the Universal Law, which is simply a blind Force.  The Law is a blind Force, and lest we misuse It, we should be very careful to follow a constructive course.  The Law is Absolute and we should trust Its impersonal action implicitly.  It can do anything for us THAT WE CAN CONCEIVE OF IT DOING.  It is the Law of freedom to all who believe in and obey It.

We must realize that the Universal Spirit is the Supreme Knower in the Universe.  The Law can only operate on that which is known.  In such degree as our knowledge partakes of Its Original Knowledge, or Nature, it has power.  The highest realization we can have is a recognition of the Omnipresence of Spirit.  This will set greater possibilities in motion and will, automatically, provide a better concept of life. Consequently, those people who have had the greatest sense of the Divine Presence - wherever it has been coupled with the definite knowledge of the Universal Law of Mind - have had the greatest power over that Law.  This was the secret of the power of Jesus.

We should daily train our thought to recognize the Spirit in everything we do, say or think. There is no other way, to try any other way would be to make a complete failure.  "Render, therefore, unto Caesar, the things which are Caesar's' and unto God the things that are God's."  A constant realization of the presence of Spirit will provide a sense of Divine Companionship that no other attitude could produce.  Why should we not take the highest and best?  GOD IS - and we should realize this truth and make use of it. As soon as we recognize that God is, we can turn to the Law and tell It what to do.

We have no record of Jesus asking God to do anything, except in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He said:  "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wilt."  Aside from this instance, Jesus' method of approach, during His entire ministry, was to give thanks and then command the Law to work.  This is the correct manner of approach to the Spirit and the Law.   Yet have we any record of another man so apparently trying to follow the Divine Will?  No!  When Jesus healed people and told them to get up and walk, He did not pray that they might be able to get up and walk.  He exercised an authority which seemed to be the result of His communion with the Spirit, and undoubtedly it was.  Practice is a definite statement in mind, a positive affirmation.  It is an active, conscious, aggressive mental movement and in such degree as it embodies an idea - and there is no longer anything in our minds which denies the idea - it will take form, because it now becomes a part of the law and order of the Universe in which we live.

The Law is subject to Spirit and is Its servant.  Man is Spirit, but until he KNOWS this, he will be only half using the Law, for he will not have a clear understanding to fall back upon.  Treatment removes doubt and fear, lets in the realization of the Presence of Spirit, and is necessary while we are confronted by obstructions or obstacles.  Every problem is primarily mental, and the answer to our problems will be found in Spiritual Realizations."

February 4 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How Can Spirit Create? ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"No one has ever plumbed the depths of either the conscious or the subjective life.  In both directions we reach out to Infinity, and, since we cannot encompass Infinity, we shall always be expanding and always enlarging our capacity to know and to experience.  We do not need to ask why these things are so.  There can be no reason given as to why  the Truth is true.  How can Spirit of Itself create a new form?  I do not know.  As Newton said, the fact that we are able to announce the mystery is the mystery.  We do not say to the physicist who has studied and photographed the atom "WHY does it act as it does?"  He knows no more about the reason for its action than we do.  All that he knows is, that he has learned something of the way the laws of its nature operate.  We do not create laws and principles, but discover and make use of them.  Let us accept this position relative to the laws of Mind an Spirit and see what we can do with them, rather than how we may contradict their existence."

February 1 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL Summary ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"The Mind of man is some part of the Mind of God, therefore it contains within itself unlimited possibility of expansion and self-expression.

The conscious mind of man is self-knowing, self-assertive; it has volition, will, choice and may accept or reject. It is the only part of man's mind which can think independently of conditions.

The sub-conscious mind of man is simply the Law of Mind in action.  It is not a thing of itself but is the medium for all thought action.  It is the medium by which man may call into temporary being whatever he needs or enjoys on the pathway of his experience.

The Mind of God is Infinite.  The mind of man is some part of this Infinite, Creative Mind of God.  Therefore the mind of man is as infinite as is man's capacity to understand his true relationship to God or Spirit.  The mind of man is continuously unfolding into a greater recognition of its real plan in the creative order of the Universe.  It does not yet comprehend its own power or scope but it does know how, in some measure, to consciously co-operate with the Infinite.

Spirit is really the only Mind there is.  It is Eternal.  It never began nor will It ever cease to be.  It is complete and perfect, happy and whole, satisfied and at peace with Itself.  The Spirit is the only Conscious Intelligence in the Universe.  Therefore It is the only Directive Intelligence in the Universe.

Because the mind of man is the Mind of God in man, the mind of man is conscious and directive.  It is to man what God is to the Universe.

God is Spirit.  That is, without parts.  A Universal Unity and Wholeness.  God is Mind.  The self-knowing Mind of God is the Spirit of God and at the same time the Spirit of man.  Mind in its self-knowing state is Spirit.  The Mind of God and the Mind of man is the same Mind.  The conscious mind of man is part of the Self-Knowingness of the Mind of God.  The conscious mind of man is the Self-Knowingness of Spirit operating through the thought of man.  Hence its creativeness.

The conscious mind of man is that part of, or unity with, the Supreme Spirit which enables man to be an individual unit, separate in identity without becoming separated from, the Whole Spirit of God, the Whole Mind of God.  Without this conscious mind of man in an individualized state of God, or the Spirit, would have no independent offspring, therefore God would not be completely expressed.  The Eternal has placed Himself at the center of man's being in order that man may function individually.  The discovery of this, the greatest truth about man, is the greatest discovery of the ages.

It is this Divine Self-Knowingness in man which distinguishes him from all other creation.  It belongs to man alone.  It appears full-orbed in man alone.  Man alone is able to consciously work out his own destiny, to determine what manner of life he shall lead.  For it is written that God created him but little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor."

January 30 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Action of Spirit Within Itself ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

God, the Self-Existent First Cause, speaks and it is done. His Word is Law.  God is Word, God is Law, God is Spirit.  Spirit knows Itself; the Law is the servant of the Spirit, and is set in motion through Its Word.  All law is some form of universal force or energy.  Law does not know itself;  Law knows only to do.  It is the medium through which the Spirit operates to fulfill Its purpose.

Did God make Law?  It is impossible to think of a time when Law did not operate; it is impossible to conceive that It was ever created.  Therefore, Law must be Co-Existent and Co-Eternal with Spirit, a part of the Causeless Nature of the Divine Reality.

The Spirit operates through Law, which is some part of Its own Nature; therefore, all action must be some action of Spirit as Law!  The Word of Spirit moves through the Law and, since the Law must be as timeless as the Spirit, we could not think of a time when Law was not, or a time when It would cease to be; neither can we imagine the Law ever failing to operate once It is set in motion.

We have then, an Infinite Spirit and an Infinite Law...Intelligence and the Way It works.  GOD WORKING THORUGH LAW, which is unfailing and certain.  Creation - the activity of God, the activity of Spirit - the passing of Substance into form, through a Law, which is set in motion by the Word of Spirit.  Spirit is "the same yesterday, today and forever," so our thought cannot picture a time when the activity of Spirit will cease.

The whole action of Spirit must be within Itself, upon the Law (which is also within Itself) and upon the Universal Stuff, which is also within Itself.  The three in reality are One - The Trinity.  There is something called God that makes things out of Himself (or Itself) by becoming the things It makes, according to law and order.   As nearly as the intelligence of the human race is able to judge, Spirit creates by contemplation.

How We Understand Its Operation

The philosophy of applied metaphysics rests upon two or three very simple, theoretical propositions.  ALL INVISIBLE PRINCIPLES ARE THEORETICAL, in that we cannot appraise them with our physical senses; we cannot weigh and measure them.  Life, love, and beauty may be considered theoretical, in that no one has ever seen them.  We see only their manifestations; but because of such manifestations, we reason that the reality exists.

Metaphysical work rests upon the theory that the Universe is a thing of Absolute Intelligence, that this Intelligence is Self-Existent - Spirit was not created.  It was, is and ever will be.  We are compelled to assume the actuality of an Original Creative Energy and Intelligence, before which nothing comes.  God, the Divine or Universal Life Principle, or whatever we choose to call It, is an Original, Uncreated, Changeless Being.  Not a Being with parts, but BEING with potentialities. There is a vast difference.

A present interpretation of the Universe, according to one learned physicist, is that of "an Infinite Thinker, thinking mathematically."  The Infinite thinker is a spontaneous Thinker.  The Infinite Thinker thinks, and what follows is in a sequence of law and order, of cause and effect; this is the mathematics.  The Infinite Thinker, in movement, is Principle.  The Being of the Infinite Thinker is pure Spirit, and may be thought of (in a sense which we but dimly comprehend) as the Infinite or abstract Essence of concrete personality, and the Cause of all objective and subjective manifestation.

To express this more simply, God thinks.  As the result of God's thought, Law is set in motion - or The Thought moves as Law - in a field of Cause and Effect.  Its movement is now mathematical.  The only thing that is spontaneous is the Creative Thought Itself - the Contemplation of Spirit.