December 10 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

PHYSICAL PERFECTION
Ernest Holmes

Supply

God is Spirit.  Spirit is Substance and Substance is supply.  This is the keynote to a realization of the more abundant life, to the demonstration of success in financial matters.  It is right that we should be successful, for otherwise the Spirit is not expressed.  The divine cannot lack for anything and we should not lack for anything that makes life worth while here on earth.

Everything that we do should be a success and we should be led to do those things which are constructive and worth while.  To bring a realization of the Presence of the Spirit into all our acts is to prove that God is all - even in the slightest things which we undertake.  Nothing is great and nothing is small to the divine, so we should never wonder if what we are going to do will be hard or easy.  God knows no hard and no easy.

A treatment after this manner should prove the law of abundance in the life of those who use such statements, and believe in them:

"I am surrounded by pure Spirit, by God, the Living Spirit.  My thought is God thought, and it is the law unto that thing where unto it is spoken.  Everything that I do shall be a success.  I am led, guided and inspired by the Living Spirit of Love and of right action.  I am compelled to move in the right direction and to always know what to do, where, and how to do it.

"I am surrounded by right action.  I am filled with the consciousness of right action.  Right action is success in all that I undertake to do.  I am successful in all my undertakings, and I am compensated for all my efforts.  I am surrounded by Substance, which is always taking the form of supply and always manifesting Itself to me in the form of whatever my need may be at the time.

"I always have an abundance of money and an abundance of whatever it takes to make life happy and opulent.  There is a continuous movement toward me of supply, of money, of all that I need to express the fullest life, happiness and action.

"I have an inner understanding of my place in the Universe.  I know that it is unique.  The Divine has not incarnated in anyone else in just the same individual way that It has in me.  I am unique and forever individualized.  Therefore, I do not need to imitate anyone or to long for the good that belongs to another.  All good is now mine and is now manifest in my experience.  I do not compete with anyone, for I am and remain forever myself.  This self is united with all selves, but is always an individual and a unique self.

"There is that in me which all people recognize as worth while and desirable, and everyone whom I meet loves this self of mine and recognizes its worth.  I draw all toward me and those whom I can benefit and those who can benefit me are irresistibly drawn toward me.  I do not strain, will or coerce.  I know.  The Truth makes me free from the fear of poverty or bondage, and emancipates me from the thought of limitation.  I see that money, like everything else that is desirable, must be a spiritual idea, and I know that I have this idea right in my mind at this moment.  I shall always have this idea of abundance.  It is mine and I take it.

"The opportunity for self-expression and compensation is always open to me and I am at all times compelled to know, accept and operate upon this opportunity.  I have abundance because I am abundance.  'All that the Father hath is mine.'"

November 28 - The Science of Mind in a Year

MEDITATIONS for Self-Help

By Ernest Holmes

Substance and Supply

The Substance of the Spirit is my Daily Supply.

I cannot be without my Good.

I can see that the constant stream of Life, flowing to me, brings into  my experience

all that makes Life happy and worthwhile.

I rest in security, knowing that Infinite Good is within and is expressing through me.

I receive my good.

June 6 ~ The Science of Mind in a Year

FROM THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS

by Ernest Holmes

The Two Sons

"In presenting the parable of the Prodigal Son to his listeners, Jesus began by saying that the Father (which is the Universal Spirit) had two sons, meaning that, as the son of God, man has the right of self-choice.  This carries with it the possibility of an apparent duality (but, of course, not a real one) and the possibility of experiencing good and evil.  Moses referred to the same thing when he said that he had set a blessing and a curse before the Children of Israel, and they must choose whom they would serve.  The two sons referred to in this story, allegorically denote the two states of consciousness necessary to real individuality.  Man is a conscious, self-knowing mind, equipped with volition and choice; he is an individual and can do as he chooses.

God Does Not Argue (Luke 15:11-32)

"A certain man had two sons:  And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.  And he divided upon them his living."

When the younger son asked for his portion of good, God did not argue with him; did not try to dissuade him; did not suggest that he was using bad judgment.  God never argues.  To argue is to suppose an opposite and God has no opposite.  We argue to arrive at a correct conclusion.  God is already the correct conclusion of all things, therefore, He does not need to argue.  Plotinus tells us that Nature never argues, that It contemplates Itself; that Its contemplation creates a form, through which It may become expressed.  Undoubtedly, this is the whole meaning and process of Creation.

"And he divided unto them his living."  There was no argument.  God did not tell the son that it would be far better for him to remain at home.  He did not say that he might come to want and suffer, perhaps starve.  He did not tell him anything:  "He divided unto them his living."  The Universe gives us what we ask; experience alone will teach us what is best to have.  "He divided unto them his living."  No clearer statement of individuality could possibly be inferred than this.  The son received exactly what he asked for; no more, and certainly no less.  The cup of his acceptance was filled from the universal horn of plenty; he could do with it as he chose.

The Far Country

"And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living."

When the son had received his share of goods, he went into a "far country."  We are all in this "far country," for it symbolizes the descent of the soul, or the outer rim of spiritual existence.  It is omnipresent, we cannot escape the Divine Presence, so this "far country" means a state of consciousness which has separated itself from the eternal good.  The "true meaning," I believe, of the "far country" would be a conscious separation from God, an isolated state, one in which there appears to be no remembrance of God as an actual, living, and ever-present Reality; one where man feels himself to be separated and entirely apart from the Eternal good.

This "far country" has a real a meaning today as it had in the hills of Galilee, nearly two thousand years ago, for all of us have come from heaven and nearly all feel the isolation of this seeming apartness from the Eternal Good.  Indeed, the whole endeavor of mankind is to return to the Father's House.

Why We Are in Want

"And there wasted his substance with riotous living.  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want."

When one separates himself from the Divine Fire, he becomes an isolated spark.  We are strong only when united with Life.  As soon as our consciousness is detached from spiritual wholeness, we can no longer draw from that inexhaustible reservoir of eternal existence, so we become exhausted - there is nothing to fall back upon.

Life is one perfect Wholeness.  The Universe is a Unit.  God is One.  IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR MAN TO FEEL SEPARATED FROM THE SPIRIT WITHOUT FEELING LOST AND IN WANT.  This is why Jesus said he could nothing of himself, but could work only as the currents of divinity ran through his personal mentality.  That subtle something which runs through all things and which we call "the Thing Itself," that energy without which nothing can be energized, that Life without which nothing can live, that Power without which nothing can move, and that Spirit without which nothing can be - IS GOD.  It is only as we live in conscious union with the Spirit, and consciously let It work through us that we really live.

The Fallen Man

So, the prodigal son "began to be in want.  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine."

The symbolism here is most interesting, for it perfectly depicts the state of humanity while in the "far country."  The "citizen" referred to means the attempt, on the part of man, to find some cause outside of Spirit.  Man seeks to league himself with material forces alone, not realizing that there can be nothing outside the Unity.  Most of us seek the cause in the effect and unknowingly put the cart before the horse, not realizing that the flower is already in the seed, and that effects must follow causes.  There can be no true alliance apart from life and no good apart from a unity with the Whole.  "And he sent him into his fields to feed swine."  Jesus was a Jew.  The Jews did not consider the meat of the swine lawful to eat; consequently he used this term to show how completely the prodigal son had fallen from his high estate - he must even be compelled to feed the despised swine.  This demonstrated that his state of being was so low that it would be impossible for it to be any worse.  It had reached the outer rim of reality."