October 26 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

Mental Atmospheres

"Each person has a mental atmosphere which is the result of all that he has thought, said and done, and consciously or unconsciously perceived.  The mental atmosphere is very real, and is that subtle influence which constitutes the power of personal attraction, for personal attraction has but little to do with looks.  It goes much deeper and is almost entirely subjective.  This will explain our likes and dislikes for those with whom we come in daily contact.  We meet some only to turn away without a word, while others we are at once drawn toward, and without any apparent reason.  This is the result of their mental atmosphere or thought vibration.  No matter what the lips may be saying, the inner thought outspeaks them, and the unspoken word often carries more weight than the spoken."

October 21 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOME PHASES of the SUBJECTIVE LIFE
Ernest Holmes

The Subjective Mind

"We have already seen that what we call the soul is really the subjective part of us.  We wish to look a little further into some of the phenomena of the soul.

We do not have two minds, but we do have a dual aspect of mentality in what we call the objective and subjective states of consciousness.  The objective mind is that part of the mentality which functions consciously.  It is the part of us which is self-knowing and without it we would not be self-conscious entities.  Our conscious mind is the place where we consciously live and are aware that we are living.  This is Spirit.

Our subjective mind is our mental emanation in Universal Subjectivity.  It is our individual use of mental law.  We certainly do not wish to deviate from that which psychology teaches about the mind of man in its conscious, subconscious, or subjective states.  We merely wish to add this:  the reason we have a subjective mind is that Subjectivity existed in the Universe prior to our use of It; and where we use It, It forms around us a subjective personification of ourselves, which is a result of the action and the reaction of our thought.

The subjective mind is the seat of memory and contains a remembrance of everything that has ever happened to the outer man.  It also contains the family and race characteristics.  It retains these memories, in a certain sense, as mental pictures.  The subjective mind might be compared to a picture gallery, upon whose walls are hung the pictures of all the people whom the individual has ever known, and all the incidents which he has ever experienced."

February 29 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

GENERAL SUMMARY ~ Ernest Holmes

"The subjective mind of man is part of the Universal Subjective Mind of God.  It is the place where every man individualizes himself on the subjective side of life.  It is his use of the Law of Cause and Effect.  It is his use of the Law of Karma.  It is the Law of the Whole, now individualized as a law of the apparent part.  It may produce either freedom or bondage according to the way that it is used.  Man's use of the Universal Law makes it appear as thought his subjective mind were an entity of itself.  It never is, however, and this is one of the main points we should remember.  It is not separated from the Universal, but is, in a certain sense, the property of the individual in the Universal.  God and man are One, but God is greater than man.  The Whole is greater than Its parts.

The Universal Subjectivity is Mind in an abstract and formless state.  That is, it is a potential energy and a latent power, which means that It is unformed, but always ready to take form.  It is Mind and Substance in an unformed or uncreated state of being.  It is ready to become molded into creativeness.  It is unexpressed Mind.  It waits to be called into form or expression.  It exists in its original state, invisible but potential with all possible form.  A creative, universal energy waiting to be used, to be operated upon.  Willing, but having no volition of Its own.  Ready, but having no initiative.  Formless, but ready to take form.

Mind in Its subjective state is Universal.  Mind in Its subjective state cannot act until It is set in motion by mind in a conscious state.  Therefore Universal Subjective Mind is a doer and not a self-conscious knower.  It knows how to do but It does not have any conscious knowledge that It is doing.  Man calls It forth into expression.

In Universal Mind is contained the essence of everything that ever was, is or shall be.  The seen and the unseen are in It and governed by It.  It is the sole and only Creative Agency in the universe and all other apparent creative agencies are It working in different ways.  Things exist in the Universal Mind as ideas.  Ideas take form and become things in the concrete or the visible world.  Thought calls things forth from the universal into expression.

The correct understanding that Mind in Its unformed state can be called forth into individual use is key to all proper mental and spiritual work from a practical viewpoint.  To know that we are surrounded by such a creativeness is not enough, however, we must use this knowledge for definite purposes if we expect to make conscious use of the law for personal self-expression.  In this limitless Medium the potential of all our desires exists in an unformed state.  The Unformed is ready to take form, but having no intention of Its own, because It is not self-knowing, form must be imposed upon It.  Form is imposed upon It by the self-knowing mind of God and of man.  Man in the little world. God in the Great World.

The invisible essence of Mind is Substance.  That is, an unformed stuff, an energy.  It is energy plus intelligence.  Intelligence is conscious energy working upon unformed substance in accord with law.  When man makes a demand upon himself or demand upon the Universe which flows through the self, he is making a demand upon Original Mind and Original Energy.  Thus his demand causes Original Mind and Energy to produce certain specific things for him.  Thus is a new creation produced by the same Creative Force or energy that produces all things.  The Mind that man uses to conceive new ideas is the Original Mind of God.  There are not two minds but One.  The Universal and the individual are one in Essence.  Any apparent difference is in degree only."

February 22 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Subjective Law ~ Ernest Holmes

"We should grasp the idea of Universal Subjectivity, the Potentiality of all things, the Divine Creative Medium.  This is the Principle through which we are to demonstrate the healing of the body or of condition; and It acts accurately and mathematically, because It is the Law of Cause and Effect.

When we think, we think from conscious intelligence, or Spirit.  The thought then becomes subjectified; it goes into the subconscious mind.  What is man's subconscious mind?  It is his atmosphere or mental center in Universal Subjectivity.  It is held in our philosophy that there is no such thing as your subjective mind and my subjective mind, meaning two, for this would be duality.  But there is such a thing as the subjective state of my thought and of your thought in Mind.  This should be seen clearly, for here is where psychology and metaphysics separate, where their interpretations differ.

When we think, we think into a Universal Creative Medium, a receptive and plastic medium which surrounds us on all sides, which permeates and flows through us.  When we think, we must and do think into and upon It, since It is omnipresent. 

As each subjectifies a consciousness about himself, he is surrounding himself with a mental atmosphere; and nothing can enter this except through the avenues of his own thought.  But this thought might be conscious or unconscious.  In most cases it is unconscious.  However, the student of metaphysics is learning to consciously control the stream of thought that he allows to enter his inner and creative mentality.

The Result of Our Own Thinking

Thought is an inner movement, which is largely the result of one's perception of life and his reaction to it.  Every time this movement takes place it takes place within Mind, upon Cause, according to Law.  We are dealing with the same Power that molds the planets and all that is upon them, and the limit of our ability to use this Power is not in Principle, but in our understanding of It!

We are dealing with a neutral, creative Power, just as we would be in the case of electricity or any other natural force.  It is on a higher plane for It is the Power of Intelligence.  Our thought, in its externalization, will reach its own level, just as water reaches its own level by its own weight and without effort.  This is in line with the necessity for the Universe, in order to be at all, must be Self-Existent.  By the Self-Existence of the Universe is meant a Universe which is Its own reason for being; a Universe which exists by virtue of Itself being All.

Each one of us today is the result of the use he has made of the Law, either consciously or unconsciously.  As soon as we realize this we shall see that what we are now (or what we now have and experience) is the result of what we have thought; and the answer to what we shall be is contained in what we are now thinking, FOR WE CAN CHANGE OUR THINKING!

Man thinks, and supposes that he lets go of those thoughts,...that he is finished with them; but such is not the case, for thought becomes subjectified in the Mind like a seed planted in the soil, and , unless neutralized, it stays there and determines the attraction and repulsion in the experience of the one thinking.  There is a constant action on the subjective side of life; and it is the unconscious process which decides what is going to happen in the outer experience.  Whatever we think, act, believe in, feel, visualize, vision, image, read and talk about - in fact all processes which affect or impress us at all - are going into the subjective state of our thought, which is our individualized use of the Universal Mind.  Whatever goes into the subjective state of our thought tends to return again as some condition.  So we, and we alone, control our destiny.

Law is Mind in Action

There is One Infinite Life acting through Law, and this Law is mental.   Law is Mind in action.  We are surrounded by an Infinite, subconscious, impersonal, neutral, plastic and ever-present Thinking Stuff, from which all things come, and which, in Its Original State, permeates and penetrates all things.

By impressing our thought upon this Substance, we can cause It to produce for us that which we think. Impressing our thought upon It is not an external act, for when we impress our thought upon ourselves, we are thinking into It. This is because of the Unity of all Mind.

Jesus said:  "As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."  Knowing the nature of Law, He did not say:  "It is done unto you as you wish."  He announced the universality of the Law when he called it a Law of Belief.

The Destructive Use of the Law

Someone may say, "I cannot imagine God not caring."  I cannot either, but we are dealing with Law.  Does the law of electricity care whether it cooks the dinner or burns the house?  Whether it electrocutes a criminal or warms a saint?  Of course, it does not.  Does the Urge which impels people to express, care whether a man kneels in ecstasy or lies drunk in the gutter?  We are dealing with Law, and it follows that since we are dealing with Law, It will ultimately bring back to us the result of the forces which we set in motion through It.

Consequently, no person who is enlightened would seek to use this Law destructively, for he would know that, sooner or later, the very power set in motion by himself would ultimately destroy him.  "All they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." The Spirit of Christ is the spirit which constructively uses the Law.  The spirit of antichrist is the destructive use of the Law. The Spirit of Christ, being in line with the Cosmic Life, will always transcend, neutralize, destroy, and utterly obliterate the spirit of the Antichrist.  Finally, only the Spirit of Christ can succeed."

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.

February 2 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

SOUL ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Creative Medium

"We have spoken of the threefold Nature of Reality or God- the Trinity of Being- as Spirit, Soul and Body:  Conscious Intelligence, Subjective Law, and Form.  This threefold unity of Reality has been taught by most of the great spiritual philosophies and religions that have been given to the world.

We are using the word "Soul" in the sense of a Universal Soul, or Medium, through which Spirit operates.  It is the Holy Ghost, or third Person of the Chistian Trinity.  Like the creative soil, in which seeds are planted and from which plant life comes, the Soul of the Universe is the Creative Medium into which the Word of Spirit falls and from which Creation arises.

We should not, however, think of Soul and Spirit as separate from each other.  They are really two parts or aspects of the same thing, each being Self-Existent and Co-Eternal with the other.  The term Subjective Mind is used in speaking of the Univeral Soul, rather than the term Subconscious Mind, to avoid the impression that subjective means unconscious.  MIND NEVER COULD BE UNCONSCIOUS!  The Soul is subjective to Spirit, receives impressions from Spirit.  The Subjective Mind which we call Soul, is not a knower in the sense that Spirit is, i.e., It is not Self-Conscious.  It knows only to do without knowing why It does.  It is a doer or executor of the will of the Spirit and has no choice of Its own.  It is the business of Soul to reflect the images that Spirit casts into It.

Subjective Intelligence

The Soul is immaterial as we think of matter, but It is the Substance of Spirit and perhaps we could use the expression, "the matter of Spirit."  As all matter in the physical world is supposed finally to resolve into the ether form which it came, we may think of the Substance of Soul as we think of the ether of science, and realize that all form finally becomes Soul-Stuff again.

Perhaps the simplest way would be to think of It as the last and final analysis of matter.  (We continue to use this word in the face of the knowledge that scientists, in theory, have already done away with matter.)  We know that matter comes from somewhere, and the teaching is that Soul-Stuff is the source from which it comes.  We must, however, distinguish Soul-Stuff from Soul.  Soul is Subjective Intelligence, the Principle just beneath Spirit; for, while Soul may not have the conscious Intelligence to choose, It certainly has the Intelligence to execute the desire of Spirit.  IT IS NEVER IN ANY SENSE UNCONSCIOUS.  The Soul of the Universe is next in Principle to Spirit and is the servant of Spirit.  The term "Soul-Stuff" refers to the primordial or undifferentiated Substance from which all things are made.

While the Soul may not choose, having no self-consciousness of Its own, yet It has an Intelligence which is infinite, compared to the intelligence which we exhibit.  For instance, the combined intelligence of the race could not create the life of a plant, yet the Intelligence in the creative soil of the earth will produce as many for us as we ask, when we plant the seed of that which we wish to have created.

The same principle holds good in that greater Creative Medium of the Spirit, which we call the Soul of the Universe.  It has the Intelligence and Power to produce, but no choice as to what It is to produce.  Having no conscious mind of Its own, It receives all ideas given It, and tends to create a form around them.  If It could choose, It could reject, and this is as impossible as for the soil to say, "You must not plant spinach this year, you must plant cauliflower."  We can imagine what consternation would prevail throughout the world if just once the soil failed to function according to the law of its nature.  We need not be disturbed by such a fear.  It is bound to accept and to act.  It does not argue but at once begins to create a likeness of the pattern given it.  If we say "petunias," right back to us it says "petunias," and begins immediately the business of producing them.  Being a neutral, creative medium which knows neither good nor bad, it is conscious only of its own ability to do.  This is why some of the earlier philosophers referred to the Universal Soul, or Creative Medium, as a "blind force, not knowing, only doing."  This we know to be true of the nature of all law.  We are not discussing the Nature of the Spirit.  We are talking about Law.

Law

It must be apparent by now that the Creative Medium of Spirit is the great Mental Law of the Universe.  It is the Law, obeying the Will of the Spirit; It is the Universal Law of Mind.  All law is Mind in action.  Soul is the Medium through which all Law and all Power operate.  Being subjective, It cannot analyze, dissect or deny.  Because of Its Nature, It must always accept.  The Karmic Law, which means the Law of Cause and Effect, works through the medium of the Universal Soul, which is the Creative Principle of Nature and the Law of Spirit.

Let us bear in mind that neither Spirit nor the Soul of the Universe were ever created.  Each is eternal. Because this impartial, impersonal Soul is the medium through which Spirit works, and because It is a "blind force not knowing, only doing," It was called by the ancients "Maya," from which arose the teachings of the illusions of the mind - the mirror of the mind.

What is termed Subjective Mind, as the average person comprehends it, has no existence.  In reality, there is no such thing as your subject mind and my subjective mind.  If our subjective minds were isolated and things of themselves, we would be so completely separated that there would be no means by which we could communicate with each other. The next great bridge that psychology must cross is a recognition that what is called your subjective mind and my subjective mind is merely the place where Universal Subjectivity, the Creative Medium Itself, reacts to our personal use of It.

Within us, then, there is a creative field which we call subjective mind, and around us there is a field which we call Universal subjectivity.  One is Universal, the other individual, but in reality they are one.  There is One mental Law in the Universe and where we use It, It becomes our law, because we have individualized It.  It is impossible to plumb the depths of the individual mind, because it is not really individual but individualized.

Behind or within the individualized point is the Universal, which has no limits.  In this concept alone lies the possibility of an endless and an eternal expansion.  Everyone is Universal on the subjective side of life and individual only at the point of conscious perception.  We use the power of the Universal Mind every time we think!"

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 16 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Mental Laws ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"As we think of the medium of radio transmission in terms of law, so we should think of the Mental Medium in terms of law, for the Mental Medium must be the Law of mental action.  While we might think of It as the Mind of God, we could not think of It as the Spirit of God; for the Mental Medium is automatic, while the Spirit must be Self-Knowing. We could not call the Universal Medium of Mind "God" any more than we could call electricity "God."  The Universal Medium of Mind is but one of the many attributes of God, the avenue through which God operates as Law.

We should differentiate between Universal Mind and Universal Spirit. As we examine the Subjective, we find It to be both intelligent and conscious, without knowing that It is intelligent, and without being self-conscious.  All law must be subjective; the soil knows how to take a seed and make a plant from it; it does not know whether it is making a tomato or a potato. If this were not true of the laws of nature, we could not depend upon them, we should be confronted with caprice.  One of the most difficult problems to realize is that when we are dealing with the Law of Mind, we are dealing with an absolutely impersonal thing.  It knows how to create without knowing what It creates.  Therefore, we must distinguish between the Law of Mind and the Spirit which uses the Law.  The ancients taught that there is an Infinite Self-Knowing Spirit (one of the oldest sayings in the world is:  "Spirit is the Power that knows Itself.") in addition to which there is an Infinite Law which knows how to do but does not care what It does.  This Law is the Karmic Law of Buddha:  "The Law that binds the ignorant and frees the wise," as Anna Besant stated it.  It is the Cause and Effect of the West; but It is not to be confused with Kismet, which is fate, because Its tendency can be changed.

There is a Law in the Universe which operates in a certain way according to the tendency set in motion, and does so mathematically, inexorably.  We cannot destroy the Law but we can re-direct Its movement.  Just as we plant seeds and later decide we wish something else, we go out and uproot the first seeds and plant others in their place.  We are not thereby destroying the soil; we have simply determined to use it in a different way.  When we are dealing with Subjectivity, we are always dealing with that which is subject to the conscious volition. 

The conscious volition in the Universe is what is meant by the Spirit or Dog.  The Mental Medium, the Universal Subjectivity, the Law, is the doer of the Word!  Plotinus speaks of it as a doer but not a knower.  He called it a blind force, not knowing only doing.

This is the principle which we use in practice.  We should distinguish between conscious volition as Spirit, and the Subjective Law, which works  with intelligence but not self-conscious awareness.  When this is realized we shall no longer be superstitious about our use of the Law.  It has been difficult to get away from such a superstitious reaction, because of a theological rather than a scientific approach to the subject.  The Law we are discussing is simply a law of Nature, a force of Nature.  It happens to be a mental force, and an intelligent and creative one, like electricity, which will either light our house and cook our food or will electrocute us if we use it incorrectly.

The Threefold Nature of God

We find, then, as we study our own being we begin to deduce what the nature of God, or the Universal Being, is.  There is no way we can know God except by studying man.  Someone may say, "God reveals Himself;" yes, we think God reveals Himself to us, but only by revealing Himself through us.  We know about God only as we judge what God must be, by studying the nature of those things which we can somewhat analyze, plus that intuitive feeling we have of eternal verities.

If we study the true nature of man, then we shall have delved into the real nature of God, or First Cause, from which man springs.  As we have found that man is threefold in his nature, we must deduce that God is threefold in His Nature, i.e. that God is Spirit, or Self-Knowingness; God is Law and action; God is result or Body.  This is  the inner teaching of "The Trinity."  God, as Self-Knowing Spirit means the Divine Being Whom we have always thought of and believed in, the Being to Whom we have prayed and Whom we have adored.  God as Law means the way in which Spirit works, and Law in this sense would be the servant of the Spirit.  God as Body means the manifestation of the Spirit.

Trinity of Being

This trinity of being appears to run through all Nature and all life.  For instance, there is electricity, the way it works and its results, which is light or motive power.  There is the seed, the creative medium of the soil, and the plant. 

Turn it as we may, we are confronted with the necessity of a Trinity of Being.  Throughout the ages, this Trinity has been taught.  Every great religion and every great spiritual philosophy has taught this Trinity.  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the Christian Trinity.  It is the Thing, the Way It Works, and What It Does.  The Thing is Absolute Intelligence; the way It works, is Absolute Law; and What It does, is the result - manifestation.  The action of the Thing Itself is what the Bible calls "The Word."....Absolute Intelligence."

January 7 ~ Science of Mind in a Year

Limitless Power at Man's Disposal ~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

"Marvelous as the concept may be, it is non the less true that man has at his disposal - in what he calls his Subjective Mind - a power that seems to be Limitless.  THIS IS BECAUSE HE IS ONE WITH THE WHOLE ON THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE OF LIFE!  Man's thought, falling into his subjective mind, merges with the Universal Subjective Mind, and becomes the law of his life, through the one great law of all life.

There are not two subjective minds.  There is but one Subjective Mind, and what we call our subjective mind is really the use we are making of the One Law.  Each individual maintains his identity in Law, through his personal use of It. And each is drawing from Life what he thinks into It!

To learn how to think is to learn how to live, for our thoughts go into a medium that is Infinite in Its ability to do and to be.  Man, by thinking, can bring into his experience whatsoever he desires-if he thinks correctly, and becomes a living embodiment of his thoughts.  This is not done by holding thoughts but by knowing the Truth.

Within us, then, there is a creative field, which we call the subjective mind; around us there is a creative field which we call Subjective.  One is universal and the other is individual, but in reality they are one.  THERE IS ONE MENTAL LAW IN THE UNIVERSE, AND WHERE WE USE IT, IT BECOMES OUR LAW BECAUSE WE HAVE INDIVIDUALIZED IT.  It is impossible to plumb the depths of the individual mind, because the individual mind is really not individual but is individualized.  Behind the individual is the Universal, which has no limits.  In this concept alone lies the possibility of eternal and endless expansion.  Everyone is Universal on the subjective side of life, and individual only at the point of conscious perception.  The riddle is solved, and we all use the creative power of the Universal Mind every time we use our own mind.

All Thought is Creative

Since this is true, it follows that we cannot say that one thought is creative while another is not.  We must say that all thought is creative, according to the nature, impulse, emotion or conviction behind the thought.  Thought creates a mold in the Subjective, in which the idea is accepted and poured, and sets power in motion in accordance with the thought.  Ignorance of this excuses no one from its effects, for we are dealing with Law and not whimsical fancy.

The conscious mind is superior to the subjective and may consciously use it, Great as the subconscious is, its tendency is set in motion by the conscious thought, and in this possibility lies the path to freedom.  The Karmic Law is not kismet.  It is not fate but cause and effect. It is a taskmaster to the unwise; a servant to the wise.

The Road to Freedom is Not Mysterious

Experience has taught us that the subjective tendency of this intelligent Law of creative force may consciously be directed and definitely used.  This is the greatest discovery of all time. There is no mystery here, but a profound fact and a demonstrable one.  The road to freedom lies, not through mysteries or occult performances, but through the intelligent use of Nature's forces and laws.  the Law of Mind is a natural law in the spiritual world.

But what do we mean by the spiritual world?  We mean the world of conscious intelligence.  The Subjective is a world of Law and of mechanical order; in our lives, it is largely a reaction, an effect, a way.  IT IS NEVER A PERSON THOUGH IT OFTEN APPEARS TO ACT AS THOUGH IT WERE ONE.  Right here, many are completely misled, mistaking subjective impulses for actual personalities.  This, however, is a field of investigation not fully to be considered here.

The simplest way to state the proposition is to say that we have a conscious mind that operates within a subjective field, which is creative.  The conscious mind is Spirit, the subjective mind is Law.  One is a complement of the other and no real individuality could be expressed without a combination of both.

No man has ever plumbed the depths of either the conscious or the subjective life.  In both directions, we reach out to Infinity, and since we cannot encompass Infinity, we shall always be expanding and always enlarging our capacity to know and to experience.

We need not ask why these things are so.  There can be no reason given as to why the Truth is true.  We do not create laws and principles, but discover and make use of them.  Let us accept this position relative to the laws of Mind and Spirit, and see what we can do with them-rather than how we may contradict the inevitable.  Our mind and spirit is our echo of the "Eternal Thing" Itself, and the sooner we discover this fact, the sooner we shall be made free and happy.  The Universe is filled with Spirit and filled with Law.  One reacts to the other.  We are Spirit and we are Law.  The law of our life reacts to our spiritual or material concepts, and builds and re-builds according to our beliefs and faith.

Learning to Trust Will Make Us Happy

All men seek some relationship to the Universal Mind, the Over-Soul, or the Eternal Spirit, which we call God.  And Life reveals itself to whoever is receptive to it.  That we are living in a spiritual Universe, which includes the material or physical universe, has been a conclusion of the deepest thinkers of every age.  That this spiritual Universe must be one of pure Intelligence and perfect Life, dominated by Love, by Reason and by the power to create, seems an inevitable conclusion.

There is a Power in the Universe that honors our faith in It; there is a Law in the Universe which exacts the "utter-most farthing."  We all wish to feel that the power behind everything is good, as well as creative, an Eternal and Changeless Intelligence, in which man lives and moves and has his being.  Intuitively, we sense that every man, in his native state, is some part or manifestation of this Eternal Principle; and that the entire problem of limitation, evil, suffering, and uncertainty is not God-ordained, but is the result of ignorance.  It has been written that the Truth shall make us free, provided we know the Truth, and we note that the evolution of man's consciousness brings with it the acquisition of new powers and higher possibilities. 

We find ourselves torn by confusion, by conflict, by affirmation and denial, by emotion congested by fear, congealed by pride.  We are afraid of the Universe in which we live, suspicious of people around us, uncertain of the salvation of our own souls.  All these things negatively react and cause physical disorders.

Nature seems to await our comprehension of her and, since she is governed by immutable laws - the ignorance of which excuses no man from their effects - the bondage of humanity must be a result of our ignorance of the true nature of Reality.  The storehouse of Nature may be filled with good, but this good is locked to the ignorant.  The key to this door is held in the mind of Intelligence, working accordance with Universal Law. Through experience, man learns what is really good and satisfying, what is truly worthwhile.  As his intelligence increases, and his capacity to understand the subtle laws of Nature grows, he will gradually be set free.  As he learns the Truth, the Truth will automatically free him.

When we learn to trust the Universe, we shall be happy, prosperous and well.  We must learn to come under that Divine Government, and accept the fact that Nature's table is ever filled.  Never was there a Cosmic famine.  "The finite alone has wrought and suffered, the Infinite lies stretched in smiling repose."  God is always God.  No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation, may be, there is always a something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated. We may stumble, butt always there is that Eternal Voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.

Divine Nature Is in Every Man

This is The Thing Itself.  Briefly, let us recapitulate.  There is that within every individual which partakes of the nature of the Universal Wholeness and - in so far as it operates - is God.  That is the meaning of the word Emmanuel, the meaning of the word Christ.  There is that within us which partakes of the nature of the Divine Being, and since it partakes of the nature of the Divine Being, we are divine.  It reacts to us according to our belief in It; and it is an immutable Law, subject to the use of the least among us; no respecter of persons, It cannot be bound. Our Soul will never change or violate its own nature; all the denying of it will never change it; all the affirming of it will never make it any more than it is. But since it is what it is, and works in the way that it works, it appears to each through his belief.  It is done unto each of us as we believe.

We will say, then, that in spirit, man is One with God.  But what of the great Law of the Universe?  If we are really One with the Whole, we must be One with the Law of the Whole, as well as One with the Spirit of the Whole.

If we try to find something difficult to grasp, then we shall never grasp it, because we shall always think of it as being incomprehensible.  The mind which we discover within us is the Mind that governs everything.  This is The Thing Itself, and we should recognize its simplicity.