June 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Physical Perfection - Concluded ~ Ernest Holmes

What Can Be Healed?

"What should we try to heal through spiritual treatment?  If we were dealing only with the power of a thought, we should not expect to heal anything; but if we are dealing with a Universal Principle, why should we set any limit to Its power?

Since the Law of God is Infinite, from the spiritual viewpoint, there is no incurable disease, as opposed to a curable one.  The Law knows nothing about disease; It only acts.  The practitioner realizes that this word is the presence, power and activity of Truth, which is in him, which is Almighty, which is God, "beside which there is none other."

This word is the law unto the thing whereunto it is spoken, and has within itself the ability, the power, and the intelligence to execute itself, through the great Law of all life.  This word being the spontaneous recognition of Living Spirit - Infinite, Ever-Present, and Active - is now made manifest in and through this person, or thing, about which the practitioner is thinking.

To Spirit there can be no incurable disease.  The word "incurable" means not susceptible of being cured.  The root definition of cured is "cared for."  If we say that a disease is incurable, we are saying that it is not sensitive to care.   As long as any cell is alive it is sensitive to care, which means that as long as a person is alive, the cells of the body respond to care.  Naturally, they are not being cured if they are not being property cared for.  We have already learned that disease is largely a state of mind, and we could hardly say that a state of mind is incurable, could we?  We know that thought is constantly changing, forever taking on new ways of expression.  It cannot possibly remain permanent.  It has to change.  Can we not, accordingly, change it to a better state instead of to a worse?

Materia medica is using the term "incurable" less and less frequently, for most disease in the field of medicine is being cured.  Let us then free ourselves from the assumption that any disturbed state of thought need be permanent ("incurable")."

May 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Who Would Save His Life Shall Lose It ~ Ernest Holmes
(Based on Matt. 16:24-27) 

"This is another of those mystical sayings of Jesus which must be carefully considered before accepting it.  Does God demand that we give up everything if we are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?  Of course not!  To suppose that God wills us to be limited, is to contradict the Divine Nature.  God's only will is to Be, and for all to Be, for God can conceive of man only as part of Himself.

It must be, then, that what we are to lose is the sense of living apart from Life.  We find ourselves in the Divine Idea, immersed in the Infinite Godhead, one with the Perfect Whole.  But should we think that we, of ourselves, without this relationship rightly established, can be, or can express, then we cut the cord that binds us to the main power line and lose what little power we have.

We are powerful only as we unite with Power.  We are weak when we desert this Power.  Not because God is jealous, but because this is the way things work.  The idea of a false renunciation - of the given up of all pleasure and benefits in this life - is not even suggested in the teachings of Jesus.  Self-effacement, the neglect of the body, the belief that we must be unhappy and poor in order to serve the Truth, all these are immature ideas which deny the divine birthright of the soul, the incarnated Spirit of the Most High within us.

When we are willing to lose a personal sense of responsibility; when we let go of the thought of isolation and claim a real unity with God, then we lose the personal and find the Universal.  But remember, as the greater always includes the lesser, so the Universal always includes the personal, which is a personification of Itself.

Man is to lose the small estimate of himself, the isolated person, and is to find the greater reality, the incarnated and real ego.  The image of the Father cannot be defaced nor can all the wit or the sham of man really obliterate this image.  The Eternal Light is God, and this Light illumines the pathway of the personal when there are no obstructions.

Who leans on the Truth, throwing all - with an undivided attention - on the scales of Reality, will find them balanced rightly, through the great law of compensation, which weighs and measures everything exactly as it is.

Fasting and Prayer ( Matt. 17:21)

We are not to suppose that the physical act of fasting, or the metaphysical act of prayer, can move the throne of grace to a kindness which is otherwise withheld.  God plays no favorites and the Law of the Universe cannot reverse Its own nature.  Fasting and prayer often do bring our thought closer to Reality, not because of the fasting or the prayer, but because they open up greater fields of receptivity in our minds.

If one wishes to embody an ideal and is willing to give up all else to attain it, then he is fasting and praying!  He is sublimating an old idea with a new and a better one. If he is willing to abstain from the old and cling to the new, then he is giving greater reality to the new, and in this way contacting the Law from a more affirmative angle.

A steadfast determination to attain some purpose, the letting go of all that opposes it, a complete reliance upon the Law of Good, and an unqualified trust in Spirit - this is true fasting and real prayer.

The scientist, in profound thought and meditation before his problem - deserting all to solve it - is praying a true prayer to the principle of his science.  The poet, waiting in the silence of his own soul for inspiration, is praying that he may invoke the spirit of poetry to his listening ear.  The sculptor, chiseling at his marble, contemplating the beauty to be brought forth, prays to his god of art; and the farmer, kneeling beside his cabbage patch, trusts in the natural Law of Good to bring his seed to harvest.

We live in a fasting and praying world, but often we do not read the signs aright.  We are too used to the outward sign to realize its inward significance.  The world is much better than it knows or feels itself to be.

Healing the Lunatic (Matt. 17:14-19)

What majesty and might do we see in the calm words of Jesus!  "Bring him hither to me."  No doubt is here, no sense of approaching failure, no lack of trust in the perfect Law which governs all.  "And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him."

Surely this lesson should teach us that evil is but an obsession and - from the standpoint of eternal Reality - a complete illusion.  Could we cast out evil from our thought if evil were a real entity or had actual power?  The answer is self-evident, we could not.  Evil flees before Reality and to the mind which knows it, evil is not."

March 14 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

THE PRINCIPLES of SUCCESSFUL LIVING

Ernest Holmes

Not Something for Nothing

"Lessons on prosperity and mental control of conditions are sometimes dangerous because of the misunderstanding of this subject.  Science of Mind is not a "get-rich-quick" scheme, neither does it promise something for nothing.  It does, however, promise the one who will comply with its teaching that he shall be able to bring greater possibilities and happier conditions into his experience.

We do not teach that you can get what you want.  If we could all get what we want, it might be disastrous, for it is certain that most of us would want things that would interfere with the well-being of someone else.

While we could not expect to demonstrate that which is contrary to the nature of our own existence, we not only believe but we know that it is entirely possible, through mental treatment - through right thought and belief - to greatly influence our environment, its reaction to us, the situations we meet and the conditions we contact. There is such a thing as demonstrating a control of conditions. We shall be able to prove this in such degree as we are successful in looking away from the conditions which now exist, while accepting better ones. Not only must we accept this intellectually, but our acceptance must become a subjective embodiment of which the intellect furnishes but a mental picture.

Consequently, this Science does not promise something for nothing.  It does, however, tell us that if we comply with the Law, the Law complies with us. No man can demonstrate peace and cling to unhappiness.  He can demonstrate resignation, and call it peace, but it will not be peace.  No man can jump into the water and remain dry.  This is contrary to law and to reason. NO PERSON WHOSE ENTIRE TIME IS SPENT IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF LIMITATION CAN DEMONSTRATE FREEDOM FROM SUCH LIMITATATION!  The Law Itself must be willing to give, because in so giving Life is Self-Expressed.

The Law Is Infinite

The Science of Mind is based entirely upon the supposition that we are surrounded by a Universal Mind, into which we think. This Mind, in Its original state, fills all space.  It fills the space that man uses in the Universe.  It is in man, as well as outside him.  As he thinks into this Universal Mind, he sets a law in motion, which is creative, and which contains within Itself a Limitless possibility.

The Law through which man operates is Infinite, but man appears to be finite; that is, he has not yet evolved to a complete understanding of himself.  He is unfolding from a Limitless Potential but can bring into his experience only that which he can conceive.  There is no limit to the Law, but there appears to be a limit to man's understanding of It.  As his understanding unfolds, his possibilities of attainment will increase.

It is a great mistake to say:  "Take what you wish, for you can have anything you like."  We do not take what we wish, but we do attract to ourselves that which is like our thought.  MAN MUST BECOME MORE IF HE WISHES TO DRAW A GREATER GOOD INTO HIS LIFE.  We need not labor under the delusion that all we have to do is to say that everything is ours.  This is true in Reality, but in fact it is only as true as we make it.  We provide the mold for the Creative Law, and unless the mold we provide is increased, Substance cannot increase in our experience; for Mental Science does not promise anything that will do away with the necessity of complying with law.

The Law is a law of liberty, but not a law of license.  It is exact and exacting, and unless we are willing to comply with Its Nature and work with It, along the lines of Its inherent being, we shall receive no great benefit.  EVERY MAN MUST PAY THE PRICE FOR THAT WHICH HE RECEIVES AND THAT PRICE IS PAID IN MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL COIN.

All nature conspires to produce and manifest the freedom of the individual, that it may unloose its own energy.  We may be sure God is for us - whatever our conception of God may be, whatever our conception of the relationship of Jesus, and the idea of Christ to humanity and God and our own salvation may be - this thing must act in accordance with definite Law in the Universe, and this Law says that whenever and wherever there is an adequate subjective image, which does not contradict the nature of the Universe, that image will not only tend to take form, but will take form and will manifest. This Law we did not make and we cannot change.

But this teaching should not be confused with the idea that we can show people how to get what they want, regardless.  True prayer must be, "Thy will be done," but the implication relative to the Will of God in this prayer is not a submission to the inevitability of evil or limitation; it is a knowledge that the Will of God is always GOOD.

How do we know what the Will of God is?  We do not, other than this:  The Will of God cannot be death.  Why?  Because if we assume God to be the Principle of Life, the Principle of Life cannot produce death without destroying Itself.  The Will of Life has only to BE Life.   The Will of that which is Infinite can never be finite. Everything then should tend to expansion and multiplication in the Divine Plan.  THAT is the Will of God.  It has to be beauty, truth and harmony, as Troward said, as this is the true relationship of the Whole to the parts and the parts to the Whole.  Therefore, we should interpret the Will of God to be everything that expresses life without hurt.  This seems to be a fair, logical, sane and intelligent criterion.  Anything that will enable us to express greater life, greater happiness, greater power - so long as it does not harm anyone - must be the Will of God for us.  As much life as one can conceive will become a part of his experience.

A mental avenue must be provided through which the Law may operate as a law of liberty, if we are to be free.  This does not mean we must please the Law, for It is impersonal and neither knows nor cares who uses It, nor for what purpose; but, because It is impersonal, It is compelled by Its very nature to return to the thinker exactly what he thinks into It.  The law of mental equivalents must never be overlooked, for "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

If a man is intelligent, he will naturally seek to free himself from misery and unhappiness.  Theology may say that this is a selfish motivation, but it is exactly what we all are trying to do and calling it by a different name.  Whether it is through the remission of sins, or the salvation of the individual soul, every act in the life of the individual is that such an individual may express himself.  For instance, the love of a mother for her children, a man for his wife, a patriot for his country, a preacher for his religion, an artist for his art - all of these are but ways of self-fulfillment.  This is legitimate self-expression.

We realize, however that to attempt this self-expression at the expense of society or other individual is to defeat the very purpose for which freedom exists, for back of all is a unity.  Hence we find that the laws of necessity and not of theology (of which all religions and ethics and moral and social systems are but feeble lights) do ultimately compel experience into the path of true righteousness.

The criterion for any man as to what is right or wrong for him is not to be found in some other man's judgment.  The criterion is:  Does the thing I wish to do express more life, more happiness, more peace to myself, and at the same time harm no one?  If it does, it is right. It is not selfish.  But if it is done at the expense of anyone, then in such degree we are making a wrong use of the Law.

We may be quite emphatic in saying that we think the Universe exists for the expression of Spirit, and man exists for self-expression, because he is the expression of Spirit.

Man does not exist for the purpose of making an impression upon his environment.  He does exist to express himself in and through his environment.  There is a great difference.  Man does not exist to leave a lasting impression upon his environment.  Not at all.  It is not necessary that we leave any impression.  It is not necessary, if we should pass on tonight, that anyone should remember that we have ever lived.  All that means anything is that while we  live, WE LIVE, and wherever we go from here we shall keep on living.

It is quite a burden lifted when we realize that we do not have to move the world - it is going to move anyway.  This realization does not lessen our duty or our social obligation.  It clarifies it.  It enables us to do joyously, and free from morbidity, that which we should do in the social state.

With this in mind, and believing that there is an Infinite Law of the Spirit, or Law of Life, which tends to multiply our gifts because in doing so It multiplies Its own experience, Its own pleasure, Its own fruition; we may assume that spiritual man is already a success, is already supplied with everything that he needs.  The potential of all things exists in the Universal Wholeness."

March 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Basis for Mental Healing ~ Ernest Holmes

"Much in this field is as yet obscure and imperfectly understood, for the scientific study of the mind is still in its infancy; but the fact that a misuse of mental and spiritual laws is at the root of many unhappy conditions incident to the physical life stands out clear and sharp.

The first principle fundamental to the understanding of the operation of thought is, that we are surrounded by an Infinite Intelligence.  The possibility of healing physical disease, changing environment, attracting friends and demonstrating supply through the power of right thinking, rests entirely on the theory that we are surrounded by an Infinite Mind, which reacts to our thought according to Law.

We comprehend the meaning of Infinite Intelligence only in a small degree, but because we are spiritual beings, we do sense the presence of an Intelligence which is beyond human comprehension - an Intelligence which is great enough to encompass the past, to understand the present, and to be Father of the future.  It is the Cause of everything that has been, and is that out of which must unfold everything that is to be.  Our own intelligence is one of Its activities and is of like nature to It.

The Act of Incarnation

At the level of our self-comprehension, we know and understand the nature of God.  This self-knowing, which is God-knowing, has the possibility of an eternal expansion. As individual intelligence, we communicate with each other - are able to respond to each other - and in so doing we establish the fact that intelligence responds to intelligence.  This same law must hold good, whether we think of finite intelligence responding to finite intelligence, or Infinite Intelligence responding to finite intelligence - for intelligence is the same in ESSENCE wherever we find it.  We may conclude that Infinite Intelligence responds to us by the very necessity of being true to Its own Nature.

But how does It respond?  It can respond only by corresponding, which means that the Infinite Intelligence responds to us by a direct impartation of Itself through us.  "The highest God and the innermost God is One God."  So with Jesus we may say:  "The Father and I are One."  Whatever intelligence we possess is some degree of the One Intelligence, which we call God.

The Infinite Mind, then, imparts Itself to the finite, through the act of incarnation.  The progress of the human race is a result of that process whereby Intelligence passes, by successive degrees of incarnation, through evolution, into the human mind."

January 31 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Metaphysics and Physics ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

The laws of Mind, or spirit, are not different from the laws of chemistry and physics.  Metaphysics begins where physics leaves off.  Everything is movement; everything we can take hold of and analyze, all things in the physical world or the world of form are in a certain rate of vibration and are an effect.  This is the result of "an Infinite Thinker thinking mathematically."

To reduce this proposition to the practical life of the individual, our belief is that anything the mind thinks, it can unthink.  If, therefore, by the law of cause and effect we have produced unpleasant conditions, we should be able by this same law to produce an entirely different effect.

Another principle which is fundamental to our practice is, that not only what is set in motion can be changed; but that the Truth known is demonstrated.  The knowledge of Truth and its demonstration is both simultaneous and instantaneous.  Since we are dealing with that which is Limitless, knowing no big and no little, the possibility of our demonstration rests not in the Principle, but in our acknowledgment of, and embodiment in it, of the ideas we desire experienced!  The saying of "peace" will not produce peace unless back of the word is a realization of the meaning of peace.  So in the simplicity of our own language, we try to convince ourselves of the reality of that for which we are treating, knowing that in such degree as we have an embodiment of the idea, it is thrown into a mechanical field and must operate.

"Spirit is the Power that knows Itself."  Whatever that power within us is that knows itself, constitutes the part of us which is spirit or spiritual.  To be self-conscious, is to be a spiritual entity.  Mind, in Its self-conscious form, cannot be differentiated from Spirit.  Mind, in Its subjective or subconscious state, is the Law of Spirit.  Man is a spirit while God is The Spirit.  Man is an individual, while God is the Universal, but since the individual comes from and is in the Universal, it follows that man is a little world within himself.  This is what Jesus meant when he said that man has inherent life within himself.  The meaning of inherent life is real life...creative life.

No limit can be placed upon the spirit of man.  It merges with the Universal Spirit for the two are really One.  God is in us as we are in God - the same essence, the degree apparently different.  The one finite and  the other Infinite, and since the Infinite cannot come from the finite, it follows that the finite must come from the Infinite - a little circle within the big circle. 

Metaphysically, we recognize the Universal Spirit as the Source of all life and inspiration; an Infinite Self-Knowingness, which we grasp only in part but which is ever available, since the Infinite is omnipresent.  The mind of man is an extension of the Eternal Mind or Spirit, and his evolution is the unfolding of this everlasting Mind or Spirit through his thought.

Only One Mind

There is no such thing as your mind, my mind and God's Mind.  There is only Mind, in which we all "live and move and have our being."

Things are ideas in form.  What else could they be?  There is nothing from which to make things except ideas.  In the beginning, we behold nothing visible; there is only an Infinite Possibility, a Limitless Imagination, a Consciousness - the only action of this Consciousness being Idea.

That  which we call our subjective mind is, in reality, our identity in Infinite Mind.  It is the result  of our mental attitudes. It is our mental atmosphere, or center, in Universal Subjective Mind, in which are retained all of the images, impressions, inherited tendencies and race suggestions.  We see then that our subjective mind is the medium through which experiences come to us.

There is One First Cause - Spirit, Soul and Body - Cause, Medium, and Effect; the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  Not three gods, but the Triune Nature of the One God, the One Cause.  We think of Spirit as Absolute, Self-Conscious Intelligence.  We think of Soul as receptive to Intelligence and the Intelligence as always acting upon It.  Spirit and Soul inter-sphere each other and both have omnipresence.  The Spirit of the Universe permeates the Soul of the Universe, forever impregnating It with ideas.  The Soul of the Universe is the "Holy Womb of Nature," producing the forms which appear in the manifest universe.

The Body of the Universe is the result of the thought of Spirit, operating through the medium of soul  The Father is Absolute, Positive Intelligence; the Son is the Offspring of the Father; the Holy ghost is "The Servant of the Eternal Spirit throughout the ages."  Spirit is Absolute Intelligence, operating through the Soul of Receptive Intelligence, impregnating It with "the Divine Ideas."

The "Personalness" of God

We should think of God, not only as Principle, forever pushing forward into expression; but as Infinite Person.  In other words, if we merely think of an abstract Principle, and a mathematical Law of Cause and Effect, we shall lose all warmth and color.  We should be very careful in abstracting the Principle not to forget the Essence.

There is something in the human mind that desires to think of God or Spirit as Person.  Anything which has been in the human mind since time began - anything we are unable to erase from the human mind as a deep urge - arises out of Reality.

Let us not forget that there is inherent necessity for warmth and color.  The Universe is more than an inexorable Law of Cause and Effect.  PERSONALITY CANNOT EMERGE FROM A PRINCIPLE WHICH DOES NOT CONTAIN THE INHERENT POSSIBILITY OF PERSONALITY.  In each one of us, to each one of us, through each one of us, something is personalized and that which is personalized is personal to its own personification!  Spiritual evolution should make the Infinite not more distant; but more intimate.