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."
"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."
