March 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

IMMORTALITY

Ernest Holmes

The Meaning of Immortality

"To most of us, immortality means that we shall persist after the experience of physical death, retaining a full recognition of ourselves, and having the ability to recognize others.  If our full capacities go with us beyond the grave, we must be able to think consciously, to will, to know and to be known, to communicate and to receive communications.  We must be able to see and be seen, to understand and to be understood.  In fact, if one is really to continue as a self-conscious personality beyond this life, he can do so only if he maintains a continuous stream of the same consciousness and self-knowingness that he now possesses.

Personal identity of course postulates memory, which binds into one sequence the old life and the new.  This means that man must carry with him - after the experience of physical death - a complete remembrance, for it is to this alone that we must look for the link which binds one event to another, making life a continuous stream of self-conscious expression.  To suppose that man can forget, and still maintain a self-conscious identity, is to suppose that one could cut off his entire past without destroying the logical sequence of personality.  Where is this faculty?  Cut a man into the smallest bits, analyze and dissect every atom of his physical being, and you will never find memory.  There is something about the personality which not only performs its functions, but also remembers what it has done, and which can anticipate future events.  What is it?  It is the thing we are talking about, the non-physical faculty of perception, the thing that knows...The Knower.  Individuality might remain without remembrance, but not so with personality for what we are is the result of what we have been, the result of what has gone before.

We are not content with the thought that immortality is merely the result of one's life and work, which he has left behind; for instance, that he immortalizes himself in his offspring - we still ask "What of the man?"  Man, then, if he is to have an immortality worthy of the name, must continue as he now is beyond the grave.  DEATH CANNOT ROB HIM OF ANYTHING IF HE BE IMMORTAL!"

February 17 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Punishment and Reward ~ Ernest Holmes

"Before we leave this subject of bondage and freedom, we wish to make clear that there is no sin but a mistake, and no punishment but an inevitable consequence.  Wrong doing must be punished, for the Law of Cause and Effect must be eternally operative. Right acts are rewarded in the same manner.

We do not say that man cannot sin; what we say is, that he does sin - or make mistakes - and he is thereby automatically punished AS LONG AS HE CONTINUES TO MAKE MISTAKES; but bondage is not real to the Universe and sin is not real to God. This does not mean that we can do whatever we wish, with disregard for the consequences; nor does the fact that we are punished for our mistakes mean that there is an evil power in the Universe; it does mean that there is an immutable Law of Cause and Effect running through everything. We are not punished for our sins but by them.  Sin is its own punishment and righteousness is its own reward!

The age-long discussion of the problem of evil will never be answered until we realize that evil is not a thing of itself.  It is simply a misuse of the Law of Freedom.  The problem of evil will be met only to the degree that we cease doing evil and do good, for the evil will disappear when we no longer indulge in it.  When the whole world sees the right and does it; then, and not until then, will the problem of evil be solved for the entire race.

Spirit, Soul, and Body

It is necessary that we understand the Unity of all life, the Unity of God and man on all three planes.  We have studied Universal Spirit; Universal Subjectivity, which is called the Soul of the Universe, and Universal Spirit in manifestation, which is called the physical Universe, or the Body of God.

Studying man, we find that his body - like the physical Universe - devoid of mind or intelligence, has no volition.  It may be permeated with intelligence, but it is not intelligent.  It is one with the Body of God, the physical universe.

What did we learn about the Soul of the Universe?  Remember the qualities that were discussed under the head of Subjectivity, and you will find all of them depicted in what is called the subjective nature of man; for our subconscious or subjective mind reproduces all of the attributes belonging to Universal Subjective Mind.  When we turn to the spirit of man, we find that it is one with the Spirit of God, i.e., man is a self-conscious, thinking, choosing center of individualized intelligence, or God-Consciousness, in the great Whole.

So we find that man is one with everything physical in the physical world; one with the Soul of the Universe in the subjective world; and one with the Spirit of God in the conscious world.  Through that which we call our objective or conscious mind, comes what we know of God and Life.  The objective, or conscious mind is the spiritual mind for which we have been looking, but it is not fully developed.  If this were not so, there would be no mind with which to look.  The objective mind must be the spiritual mind of man, since it is the only thing about him which knows that he has life and is conscious of itself!

The whole of Spirit is potentially focused in our individual objective consciousness, but we have not yet evolved to a realization of this, except in a slight degree.  We approach and contact the Larger Spirit through our own spirit or conscious mind.  The doorway to the Absolute stands open at the center of our intuitive perception. We enter the Absolute through that which appears to be finite, because the finite must be drawn from the Infinite.  This Spirit which animates us is the same Spirit which animates all life and everything that lives. Emerson said that we animate what we see and see what we animate, the reason for this being that only as we truly see can the Divine Harmony be reflected through us and animate that which is seen.

The spirit of man is equipped with decision, will, choice, volition, intellect and purpose.  It is the microcosm within the Macrocosm, which means the little world within the big world.  It is also called the image of God; it is Sonship, the Sonship of the Father; it is Emmanuel or God with us; it is the Christ or Logos, which means the Word, it can reason both inductively and deductively.

The spirit of man seems to have an external and in internal perception.  Its external perception is by appearance; its internal, through intuition. Appearances would limit the future possibility of man to the uses he has already made of Life, and thus circumscribe the Infinite, hence we are told to judge righteously and not by appearances.  Plotinus tells us that there are three ways by which we gather knowledge:  through science, through opinion, and through intuition or illumination.  These channels represent spiritual capacities since each is an avenue leading to self-knowingness, and self-knowingness is the very nature and essence of Spirit.  Science is spirit inducing Its own laws.  Intuition is Spirit knowing Itself. Opinion is our estimate of Reality.  All are spiritual faculties and should be so considered in the study of this Science.  The race is growing into a broader divinity, from age to age, as more and more of Reality opens before its onward march in its eternal progress.

We should think of our spirit as being some part of the Universal Spirit, and of our minds as open to the Divine Influx.  As any specific knowledge must come  from the center of all knowledge, it follows that whenever and wherever the mind of man is open to the Divine Influx, it will receive instruction directly from the center and source of All.  Science, invention, art, literature, philosophy and religion, have one common center from which, through experience, is drawn all knowledge.

We should neither separate Spirit from matter...physical form from that which gives form...nor Life from living.  To supposed that one must retire from the world to be spiritual is one of the greatest possible mistakes.  This is directly opposed to the self-evident truth that Spirit enjoys Itself only in Its own works, which is Its self-manifestation  We enter into the Spirit of Life only as we enter into the spirit of living."

February 5 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Soul Reasons Deductively ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Before we leave this subject of Soul, we should understand perfectly that it is impossible to divide Mind. We speak of the conscious and the subjective; the self-conscious and the unconscious, and the terms are confusing unless we remember that consciousness is always a unity.  We arbitrarily divide the different activities of consciousness in order that we may discuss how thought works.

There are two ways of reasoning , the inductive and the deductive method.  Inductive reasoning is an inquiry into the truth; it is a process of analysis.  Deductive reasoning follows an already established premise. It is from the whole to the part.

Since inductive reasoning is an analysis, an inquiry into Truth, it follows that God can only reason deductively, since God is Truth.  That which is Infinite does not have to inquire into the Truth.  Consequently, there can be no inductive reasoning either in the Spirit or the Soul of the Universe.  There can be no inductive reasoning in Spirit, because It already knows all things.  There can be no inductive reasoning in the Soul of the Universe, because It is the Creative Medium, and if It could reason inductively, It could reject certain thoughts because It could analyze; and Soul or Subjectivity can never reject.  It is bound by Its own Nature to accept.  It is impersonal and neither knows nor cares who uses It. It is formless, having no mind of Its own.  It has been called the Universal Feminine or the Holy Womb of Nature, because It is receptive and creative.  It is Karmic Law because It is subjective to the Self-Knowing Mind.  It is the medium of the law of cause and effect, of all race suggestion. 

If a convicted felon in a prison garden were to plant pink roses, the soil would produce just as lovely flowers for him as for the most beautiful picture star.  All that would be necessary in either case would be a compliance with the Law regarding the planting of roses.  So, the Soul is without conscious consciousness, but is conscious in relationship to the impressions It has received (whether they be Truth or only belief) and with mathematical certainty and precision, backed by the law of Its own being, it proceeds to execute the ideas given It.  Thus it is plainly seen that the Soul can only reason deductively.

Subjectivity Never an Entity

The Subconscious, or Subjective, is never an entity, although It acts as though It were.  The Creative Medium is a medium only, never a person.  It is necessary that we understand this, because one of the first things a practitioner has to do is to separate the belief from the believer. From the standpoint of the spiritual man, disease, poverty, unhappiness and misery, are neither person, place nor thing.

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.

January 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Spirit ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

The Definition of Spirit

"The nature of Being is a Unity, with three distinct attributes:  Spirit, Soul, and Body.

The definition of Spirit is:  "life or intelligence conceived of entire lay apart from physical embodiment.  It is vital essence, force, energy, as distinct from matter."

Probably the definition of "Spirit" is more easily understood, more readily accepted, than any other term used in describing Deity.  Jesus in talking with the woman of Samaria, explained:  "God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.". 

The nature of Being is a Unity, with three distinct attributes:  Spirit, Soul, and Body.

Spirit is the active and Self-Conscious Principle.  Spirit is First Cause or God - the Absolute Essence of all that is.  It is the great or Universal I AM.  Spirit is Conscious Mind and is the Power which knows Itself.  It is conscious Being.

The Spirit is Self-Propelling.  It is Absolute and All.  It is Self-Existent and has all life within Itself.  It is the Word and the Word is Volition.  It has choice because It is Volition.  It is Will because It chooses.  It is Free Spirit, because It knows nothing outside Itself, and therefore nothing different from Itself.

Spirit is the Father-Mother God, because It is the Principle of Unity back of all things.  The masculine and the feminine principles both come from the One.  Spirit is all Life, Truth, Universe that knows Itself.  The Spirit could know nothing outside Itself, that would be God and something else.  SPIRIT IS ALL - the Center and Circumference of everything that exists - both manifest and unmanifest.  It has no enemies, no differences, no otherness, no apartness, no separation from Itself.  It is Undivided, Complete and Perfect within Itself, having no opposites and no opposition.  It know s only Its own ability and since It is All, It cannot be hindered in any way, shape or manner.

It is impossible for a finite mind to comprehend such a complete Life and Power.  in moments of real inspiration, we realize, to a degree at least, that God is All - That which has within Itself all that really is - the Life in everything ant he Love through everything.  The One Presence and the One Infinite Person, Whom we call god or Spirit; within this One all live.

Its Nature

The fundamental premise upon which the philosophy of the Bible is developed is that Spirit is One, and that CREATION IS THE RESULT OF SPIRIT'S ONE MODE OF ACTION.

Perhaps the one point on which we are all agreed is that whatever the Nature of First Cause or Spirit, It is creative.  If this were not true, nothing could come into existence.  It is impossible to think of Creative Life expressing Itself other than in livingness.  Jesus undoubtedly meant just this, when he explained that he had come "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Another point on which we are all agreed as to the Nature of First Cause is, that It is harmonious.  If there were an element of inharmony, discord or decay anywhere in Its Nature, It would destroy Itself.

It has always been taught that the Soul of the Universe is that receptive medium into which the Spirit breathes forth the forms of Its thought.  It is subjective to the Spirit.  That which is subjective is always impersonal, neutral, plastic, passive and receptive.  Wherever we find subjective law, we shall find something that is compelled to receive that which is given it, and compelled to act upon it.  Consequently, the Soul of the Universe has been called "a blind force, not knowing, only doing."  It has been called "The Servant of the Eternal Spirit throughout the ages."  It is the medium of the thought, power and action of Spirit.

Spirit, the Changeless

Creation does not mean making something out of nothing.  Creation is the passing of Spirit into form and is eternally going on.  Spirit cannot change, for being All, there is nothing for It to change into.  This is self-evident.

It is necessary for us to understand that the only active Principle is Spirit...Self-Conscious, Self-Knowing Life...and that all else is subject to Its Will.  The Spirit is conscious of Its own Thought, Its own Desire, Its own manifest Action; and It is conscious that Its Desire is satisfied.  Consequently, It is conscious of that which It manifests; but It is not conscious of any effort or process in Its manifestation.

It is necessary that Soul and Body should exist because Spirit, without manifestation, would construct only a dream world, never coming to Self-Realization.  In order to express, there must be a medium through which Spirit manifests and there must be a manifestation, hence, Soul and Body.  The teaching of the great thinkers of all time is, that we live in a threefold Universe of Spirit, Soul and Body - of Intelligence, Substance and Form."