Demonstrating the Law ~ Ernest Holmes
The possibilities of the Law are infinite, and our possibilities of using It are limitless. There is such a thing as Universal Law and Mind, and we can use It if we comply with its nature, work as It works. We may or should, receive full benefit, and we will to the degree that we understand and properly use the Law. Thousands are today proving this Law, and in time all will come to realize Its truth.
We can demonstrate at the level of our ability to know. Beyond this, we cannot go. But we will constantly expand and increase in knowledge and understanding, thereby continuously growing in our ability to make use of the Law. In time, we shall be made free through It.
There is a law of unfoldment in man, which says he can advance only by going from where he is to the place where he would like to be. This is not because the Law is limited, but because It is law. As man unfolds in his mentality, the Law automatically reacts to him. The way to work is to begin right where we are and, through constantly applying ourselves to the Truth, we gradually increase in wisdom and understanding, for in this way alone will good results be obtained. If day by day we have a greater understanding and a clearer concept, if daily we are realizing more of Truth and applying It in our actions, then we are on the right path and eventually we shall be made free. It is a wonderful experiment and a great adventure to make conscious use of the Law; to feel that we can plant an idea in Mind and see it take form.
The student should take time every day to see his life as he wishes it to be, to make a mental picture of his ideal. He should pass this picture over to the Law and go about his business, with a calm assurance that on the inner side of life something is taking place. There should not be any sense of hurry or worry about this, just a calm, peaceful sense of reality. Let the Law work through, and express Itself in, the experience. There should be no idea of compulsion. We do not have to make the Law work; it is Its nature to work. In gladness, then, we should make known our desires, and in confidence we should wait upon the Perfect Law to manifest through us.
Our part is to be ready and willing to be guided into truth and liberty. If, in the making of a demonstration, it becomes necessary to change our mode of living, then the Law will point the way and we will follow. Our correct choice will be part of the working of the Law. All doubt and fear must go and in their place must come faith and confidence, for we shall be led by the Spirit into all good.
People often say: "I don't know what to do; I don't know how to make a choice." We must realize, that there is an Intelligence within us that does know. This "guidance" is just as true in India, where people are Buddhists, as it is in America where people are Christians. It was just as true ten thousand years ago, before the advent of Christianity, as it will be ten thousand years hence.
In so far as we are going to make this thing work, it is because we contact Universal Laws, which run through every age and race, and which answer every person. If we can see this, we shall be able to do away with a great deal of superstition and ignorance. Let each individual immediately and directly and in his own integrity, approach the Law that Is. There is no medium between us and the Universal Mind except our own thought. In such degree as we place a medium we have to absorb that medium before we can make a direct approach. The Bible says, "There is no mediator between God and man except Christ." Christ means the truth about ourselves. So, if we have to make a choice and feel we do not know which or what to choose, we must be still in our own consciousness and know that the Spirit within us knows which of these ways is the right, and most constructive way, and will guide us.
When Intelligence makes a demand upon Itself, It answers Its own demand out of Its own nature and cannot help doing so! In philosophy, this idea is called Emergent Evolution. Whenever the Universe makes a demand upon Itself, out of that very demand is created its fulfillment. But that can only be when the demand is in the nature of the Universe.
Therefore, the person who believes that God is specializing for him is right. God is specializing for him through the Law. Such a person will realize that when he says, "there is a Divine Intelligence that knows the right answer," and accepts this statement as being true, the answer to that problem is right then and there created in Mind, and will be projected through his intellect whenever and wherever he is ready to receive it. It is a new creation.
God is forever doing new things, and when we conceive new ideas, it is an act of the Divine projecting Itself into Creation. There were no flying machines until man made them. The Spirit did not have a lot of little flying machine models put away in a cosmic cupboard somewhere. But the mind that conceived the possibility of the flying machine is God. The mind we use is the Mind of the Universe. This is God in man and it is only through this Mind that we understand anything. This Mind in us, responding to us, "the flight of the Alone to the Alone," of "the One to Itself," is God speaking and God answering.
St. Paul said, "We have the mind of Christ," which means that each one of us has immediate access to the Intelligence of the Universe. We give Intelligence outlet in two ways: by pure inspiration or intuition, or the more common way of bitter experience, and with most of us it is through the latter. If it were not for the divine hope in us, our experiences would be more than the human mind could digest.
Treatment is not for the purpose of making things happen; it is to provide, within ourselves, and avenue through which they may happen. The moment we think we have to treat to compel something, that moment we are exercising a will power, which is now up against a proposition it cannot possibly meet. Treatment is not mental coercion; it is not will power; it is not concentration. We shall never arrive at a correct method of spiritual treatment merely by learning how to concentrate for any length of time on a particular objet. That is not what we are striving to arrive at. There is a mental attention which is necessary, but neither fasting nor feasting, wailing nor praising will cause us to arrive at a place of acceptance.
Treatment is not something one does to another, not something one does to an environment, nor to a situation. It is always the thing one does to himself. Whatever method enables him to do this is a good method, a good way. Treatment is an action in thought alone. It opens up the avenues of thought, expands the consciousness and lets Reality through. It clarifies the mentality, removes the obstructions of thought and lets in the Light. We already live in a Perfect Universe but It needs to be mentally seen and spiritually experienced before It can become a part of our everyday life.
When we treat for the right action we should start with the supposition that right action already is. We do not create the right action. Something must come into the treatment which is uncompromising and absolute. Troward says that we enter the Absolute in such degree as we withdraw from the relative; and that we withdraw from the relative in such degree as we enter the Absolute. What he meant was this: in such degree as the answer and the result is contingent upon any existent circumstances...any existing, known fact...no matter how apparent, the treatment is not in the Absolute; it is in the relative and necessarily conditioned by the contingent which is held in the mind.
Let us take a concrete example: Suppose I am confronted with a problem and do not know the answer to it. Every known fact is against the working out of this problem. I say, "I wish to treat this situation, I wish to handle it scientifically from the standpoint of spiritual science." My treatment, then, must not consider the facts. The facts are relative. The treatment must become Absolute. I wish to get it over into Mind as a complete acceptance, not of the old fact but of the new one. In such degree as this treatment partakes of the nature of Reality is it going to have power. It can have only as much power as I embody. This is the limitation of treatment, not limitation in Principle but in performance. The Thing Itself, of course, is not limited. As we have proven that Principle is not bound by precedent, we go into that realm which says: "Behold I make all things new," not carrying with us the limited belief of the reason why it cannot be. Any denial we make in treatment is simply to conduct us to a place of greater affirmation.
