July 8 ~ The Science of MInd in a Year

MENTAL EQUIVALENTS
By Ernest Holmes

See Life Expressed

"One should analyze himself, saying, "Do I look at myself from a standpoint of restriction?  Do I see life limited to the eternal round of getting up in the morning, eating, going to work, coming home, going to bed, sleeping, getting up again and so on?"  Break the bonds of apparent necessity and see life as one continuous expression of the Infinite Self, and as this conception gradually dawns upon the inner thought, something will happen in the outer conditions to relieve the greater demands of necessity.  Free yourself forever from the thought that God may be pleased by a life of sacrifice, that the world is any better because of your misery, or that righteousness is more perfectly expressed through poverty than abundance.  Know that the greater abundance of every good thing which you are bringing out in your life, the more perfectly you are satisfying the Divine Urge within you.  ANYTHING YOU CAN DREAM OF is not too great for you to undertake, if it hurts no man and brings happiness and good into your life.  If one were doing the work he should be doing he would never become tired, because the energy which holds the universe in place is tireless.  The reason we become tired is that we have cross currents of thought about our work.  This arises from a belief in duality - a belief in both Good and evil.

In treating we conceive of the ultimate of the idea but never of the process.  Never treat a process.  We plant a seed and there is in the seed, operating through the creative soil, everything that will cause it to develop, unfold and produce a plant.  The ultimate of effect is already potential in its cause.  This is the mystical meaning of the words:  "I am Alpha and Omega."  Our word for the fullest expression of our life or for its smallest detail should be the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of the thing thought of.  All cause and effect are in Spirit, they are bound together in one complete whole.  One is the inside, the other the outside of the same thing.

Never let anything cause you to doubt your ability to demonstrate the Truth.  CONCEIVE OF YOUR WORD AS BEING THE THING.  See the desire as an already accomplished fact and rest in perfect confidence, peace and certainty, never looking for results, never wondering, never becoming anxious, never being hurried nor worried.  Those who do not understand this attitude may think you are inactive but remember: "To him who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible."

What we know about Subjective Mind proves that It is unconscious of time, knows neither time nor process.  It knows only the completion, the answer.  That is why it is written, "Before they call, I will answer."  Cosmic Creation is from idea to object.  It does not know anything about process; process is involved in it but not consciously.  Correct practice should know that ultimate right action is now, today.  If we say, "Tomorrow it is going to be," then according to the very law we are using we hold the answer in a state of FUTURITY WHICH CAN NEVER BECOME PRESENT.   If a gardener holds his seed in his hand and says, "Tomorrow I am going to plant this seed," his garden will never start growing.  Therefore, Jesus said:  "When ye pray, believe that ye have and ye shall receive."  He did not say believe and you will immediately have.  He said, "Ye shall receive."  He did not deny the natural law of evolution and growth.  Nature operates according to a law of logical sequence."

January 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

How to Use It (Continued) ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"We should be able to look a discordant fact in the face and deny its reality, since we know its seeming reality is borrowed from illusion, from "chaos and old night."  Our standard is one of perfection.  "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"  (Matt. 5:48)  We should be able to look at a wrong condition with the knowledge that we can change it.  The realization that we have this ability must be gained by the application of our knowledge. 

The practice of the Science of Mind calls for a positive understanding of the Spirit of Truth; a willingness to let this inner Spirit guide us, with the conscious knowledge that "The law of the Lord is perfect."  (Psalms 19:7)  And we must believe this to be a fact.  IN SO FAR AS OUR THOUGHT IS IN ACCORD WITH THIS PERFECT LAW, IT WILL ACCOMPLISH AND NOTHING CAN HINDER IT.  "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,"  (Matt. 24:35) said the beautiful Jesus, as he strove to teach his disciples the immutability of the Law of Righteousness.

A practitioner uses thought definitely and for specific purposes, and the more definitely he uses the Law, the more directly will It respond to him.  A false fact is neither person, place nor thing to the one who uncovers it, and once uncovered it has no place in which to hide.  The illusion, seen and understood, is made negative in the experience of the one who suffered by it.  While it is true that wrong conditions exist, they could not remain unless there were someone to experience them.  Consequently, the experience must be in consciousness.  Change the consciousness and the false condition will disappear.  Conditions are not entities, we are entities.  Cannot that which is conscious cast out that which has no consciousness?  If we properly understood, we would be able to remove false conditions as easily as Jesus did.  He knew, but our faith is weak.  We must strengthen it and we can.

Let us analyze this:  One finds himself impoverished.   He wishes to change this condition.  He knows that it is not in accord with Ultimate Reality; that the Spirit imposes no limitations.  Therefore, he knows that his apparent limited condition has no rea law to support it; it is simply an experience of consciousness  He wishes a definite result in the opposite direction.  First, he realizes that the Law of Life is a Law of Liberty, of Freedom.  He now states that this Law of Liberty is flowing through him and into all his affairs. But the image of his limitation persists. Her is a definite contradiction of his statements of freedom.

Right here, he must stop and declare that these images of limitation are neither person, place nor thing; that they have no power, personality nor presence and no real law to support them.  He does not believe in them and they cannot operate through him.  He is free from their influence, forever.  He then begins to fill his thought with the idea of faith, the expectancy of good and the realization of plenty.  He senses, and mentally sees, right action in his life.  He puts his whole trust in the Law of good, and It becomes very real to him as he definitely speaks It into being - into his being and into the being of his affairs. He denies anything and everything that contradicts his realization of this truth.

At this point of realization, he meets a friend(?) who immediately begins a tale of woe about hard times, bad business condition, etc., and, should he listen to this "tale of the serpent," he might reverse his previous affirmations and make negative his former mental and spiritual concept!  This does not mean that he should refuse to hold conversation with people, for fear they will neutralize the position which he has taken in his mind, but that he should refuse mentally to accept the false position.  Then he can talk with anyone and not be disturbed.

The time will come when we will let our "conversation be in Heaven," and refuse to talk about, read or think about, those things that ought not to be.  But, someone will say, "Should we refuse to look at sickness, poverty and unhappiness"  This is not what we are discussing.  We will not refuse to help the helpless or lift up the fallen, but we will refuse to wallow in the mud because of our sympathies.  "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."  (Matt. 15:14)"