August 5 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
By Ernest Holmes

Asthma and Hay Fever

"Many medical men believe that "nervous persons, and those whose work is largely mental, are most often attacked by hay fever, and that hay fever attacks only those who are predisposed to it."  The general acceptance is that it is the result of an undue sensitiveness of the nostrils to the pollen of certain flowers or plants, or even the hairs of certain animals.

We should know that the claim of hay fever has no power over us, that we are inspired and directed by Infinite Mind, and that perfect discrimination and judgment are established in us.  In treating oneself, declare that every day you are capable of expressing the greater possibilities which are your divine inheritance; that you are busy expressing good and have not time for any fear thoughts of asthma and hay fever.

Know that you alone are the door-keeper to the "Temple of the Holy Ghost," your body.  You have the power to say what shall enter there.  No false thing can enter there while you are recognizing your Oneness with Infinite Life.  The pollen which you have thought irritated you is made from the very same Substance from which you are made.  You are sending out only thoughts of peace, love and joy, and no irritating thought or thing can come back to annoy or obstruct the perfect functioning of every organ of your body.  The passages of  your mind are open only to the inflow and outflow of good.  You are sensitive only to good, dwelling in the higher altitudes of consciousness, understanding Life in Its spiritual purpose, experiencing exhilaration, vitalization, and exaltation.

It is written that the breath of God animates creation, with the living presence of a pure divinity.  What breath are we breathing other than this true breath, unrestricted, flowing through channels of pure receptivity, from the Infinite Intelligence and the perfect Life of God?  Let your thought dwell, not on breath nor lack of breath, but on that which breathes.  Sense the freedom of this God-Life, flowing in and through you.  You did not create the Original Substance out of which your body was formed.  God Himself made your body, to be used as His Self-Expression.  This channel must be perfect.  With good-natured flexibility, free your thought from any sense of anxiety or strain, or indecision, or deep-seated worry and concern, knowing that you have only to keep your thought steady and clear, fixed upon the potential perfection of the Universe in which we live.  When you have lifted your consciousness in this manner, use this meditation:

"My entire body is now a receptive channel for the operation of God-Life.  My thought is pure, relaxed and peaceful.  My breathing is not obstructed (asthma) my thought is not sensitive to any discordant or disagreeable sentiment (hay fever), as Mind could not entertain a disagreeable sentiment.  I breathe in the eternal Life Essence.  By this breath I am purified and made strong.  I am freed from the belief in anything unlike Perfection.""

April 15 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

The Technique of Acquiring Faith ~ Ernest Holmes

"One cannot be a good student of the Science of Mind who is filled with fear and confusion.  He must keep himself in a state of equilibrium, in a state of poise, peace and confidence...in a state of spiritual understanding. By spiritual understanding, is not meant anything strange or unnatural, but merely that the belief in goodness must be greater than any apparent manifestation of its opposite. It is this science of faith we are seeking to uncover - a definite technique that will conduct our minds through a process of thought, if necessary, to that place which the sublime minds of all ages have reached by direct intuition.

There is no one who believes more in faith, more in prayer, or more in the necessity of the Divine Will being done, than he who practices daily the Science of Mind.  He has relieved his mind of the morbid sense that the Will of God can be the will of suffering; for if there were a suffering God, and if we are eternal beings, then we should suffer through all eternity.  But a suffering God is an impossibility.  We suffer because we are not in both conscious and subjective communication with the affirmative side of the Universe.  All human misery is a result of ignorance; and nothing but knowledge can free us from this ignorance and its effect.

As students of the Science of Mind, we find in the remarkable character of Jesus, a great impetus toward faith and conviction. The Centurion came to Jesus and asked Him to heal his servant, and Jesus said:  "Go thy way; and as thou has believed, so be it done unto thee."  The Centurion had what we call a mental equivalent of Divine authority.  In the realm in which he lived, he was accustomed to speak his word with authority.  He accepted the word of Jesus as having authority on the invisible plane.  Jesus said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in all Israel."

It is wonderful to contemplate the mental attitude of people who are not afraid to believe their prayers will be answered, and are not afraid to say, "I know."  We shall all arrive at this same assurance, this perfect faith, in such degree as we cease contemplating the Universe as opposed to Itself; as we cease having the will to do or to be that which is contrary to the Universal Good.

There is nothing in the universal order that denies the individual's good, or self-expression, so long as such self-expression does not contradict the general good, does not contradict Goodness Itself.  There is nothing in the Universe that denies us the right to be happy, if our happiness does not deny or interfere with the general good.  The Universe remains unlimited, though the whole world has suffered a sense of limitation.

We should be careful not to divide our mental house against itself. Having announced the law of liberty, we must not deny it.  When we shall all know the Truth, then ways and means and methods will be found for the freedom of all.  The mold of acceptance is the measure of our experience.  The Infinite fills all molds and forever flows into new and greater ones. Within us is the unborn possibility of limitless experience  Ours is the privilege of giving birth to it!"

February 16 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

Freedom or Bondage ~ Ernest Holmes

"We, therefore, arrive at the conclusion that while bondage is an experience, there is a Reality to which bondage is not real.  To that Reality bondage is not even an illusion or hallucination; there is a part of us that is never fooled.  That is why, in the midst of the greatest trial, death, or any human suffering, something rises from within and says with Job:  "Though I die, yet shall I live."

Freedom of will means the ability to do, say, and think as one wishes; to express life as one personally desires, to be able merely to think and dream of freedom would not be liberty. A prisoner under a life sentence can do that.  To imagine, without the power to manifest such imagination, would be to remain in a dream world which would never come to self-realization; this is not the world in which man lives at all, for man's world is one of self-expression, even though this expression appears to limit him.

We are in an Infinite Mind and Infinite Mind is also in us.  It is by this Mind that we think.  This Mind is eternal therefore, we are eternal.  This Mind is complete, therefore, we are spiritually complete, thought we do not appear to be so.  This does not alter the fact that potential man is just as perfect as is the inherent God.  As Jesus said:  "Fear no, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom;" if it is the Father's good pleasure to give us the Kingdom we should learn how to receive and use It.

A freedom under compulsion would amount to the worst kind of bondage.  The Bible says:  "If there had been any law whereby this freedom could be compelled, then verily by the law would that freedom have been given."  If there had been a way by which the Divine Creative Principle could have compelled man to suddenly appear on the scene of experience full-orbed with all his freedom - and still be an individual- then verily by the law would this have been done.  But even God could not do this. The only way God can evolve a spontaneous individual is to let him alone and allow him to awaken to himself.  "Behold I stand at the door and knock..."

So man must be created with the possibility of limitless freedom and let alone to discover himself.  On the road to self-discovery he must be subject to the Law of Reality, and if in ignorance he violates this Law, he must thereby suffer.  This is not, however, because any Divine decree ordains suffering but simply because it is the necessity of the case.  God never intended man to suffer.  Suffering may be salutary in that it leads us to a place where we learn that it is unnecessary!  We shall cease to suffer as we more and more comply with the Laws of the Universe, all suffering is the result of some infringement of these Laws. It is a solace to the mind when we come to understand that all human limitation, from the standpoint of the Divinity within us, is unnecessary.  We recognize that we experience pain, but how could there bean eternal reality to pain?  If this were true, we would have a suffering Universe, a suffering God, an agonizing Deity, all of which seem untrue, unreal and impossible.

We must know definitely and consistently that the Universe is for us and not against us.  But someone will say "The Universe is not for us, look at the evil, the limitation, lack and physical pain and anguish of the human race."  We shall have to learn that evil is neither person, place nor thing of itself, but is an experience which we are allowed to have - because of our divine individuality - until through negative experiences we learn to use the Law affirmatively, to cooperate with It, and thus to enjoy Its full benefits, for the true Law is a Law of Liberty and not of bondage.  The Universe is fool-proof.  It does say we can have what we can take, while at the same time we must expect toe experience the logical result of our thought and act, be it good or what we call evil.

The meaning of freedom implies the possibility of suffering, because if we are free we are free only by virtue of the possibility of choosing more than one course of action as an experience.  There is no freedom or happiness, as a spontaneous individuality, unless there can be a temporary restriction of bondage and unhappiness through the wrong use of freedom.  (All things are possible to the Infinite, but the Infinite forever remains true to Its own nature and never contradicts Itself.)

If man takes his images of thought only from his previous experiences, then he continues in the bondage which those previous experiences create.  If we talk about discord, we shall become more discordant.  The more the world arms for war, the more certain it is that there will be war. People who spend all their time talking about their unhappiness become more unhappy.  Jesus understood these great laws of cause and effect in the Universe, which work sometimes with apparent slowness but always with sureness.  Eventually we shall understand that all human bondage is an invention of ignorance."