CONTENTS
1. Brave New World
2. The Open Mind
3. Looking Back
4. The Authority of the Soul
5. The Light of God
6. Health is Normal
7. The Spiritual Meaning of Freedom
8. See Yourself As You Want to Be
9. Change is Necessary
10. The Final Sermon by the Sea
11. Law of Our Lives
12. Opening Our Minds to God
1. Brave New World
There was a time when a man was so convinced that the world was round that he was determined to prove it. Columbus felt that if the world was round it could be circumnavigated. Superstition, ignorance, and fear surrounded him, yet there were a few adventurous souls who dared to finance his expedition, for they had caught the vision from him because of his certainty. One man’s courage and persistency, backed by an interior vision, made it possible to discover a new world.
Long before Columbus, another man came to some far-reaching conclusions. By some inner awareness or spiritual conviction, Jesus had come to believe that every person is a spiritual being living in a spiritual universe. He had come to believe that there is a center in every person that is as perfect as that life that gave us birth.
It is no wonder he brought down the anathemas of his age, that he was labeled as one worse than a heretic — blasphemous. But so great was his conviction that he set sail on a voyage of self-discovery that changed the whole course of human experience. He opened up a new territory where few people had been — the discovery of our direct and intimate relationship with God, the Creator. Working alone with himself and the Cause of all things, Jesus brought forth the greatest spiritual philosophy the world has ever known.
The great example
You and I are trying to follow in Jesus’ footsteps to make the great discovery for ourselves. Can we reach in and out and up to something beyond? Can we grasp the meaning and significance of a direct relationship to something that, while it is greater than we are, is at the same time what we are?
Researchers in the fields of science have unlocked many of the secrets of nature, and their inventions have brought great good to the human race — and yet, we are more confused than ever. This is a time to see if we cannot discover the missing link — something that can bind humanity together in one common good, while at the same time leaving freedom for all.
So we are embarked on the voyage of self-discovery. And fortunately, we have much to go by — the lives of the great, the good, and the wise of the ages. It is to these few great souls that we must look to for guidance. They have all been in accord in saying that there is a Spirit within us.
Possibly the skeptic may say that this is but the dream of one who seeks escape from the realities of life, one who would find security in seclusion, in a meditative life withdrawn from the world — something entirely impractical, visionary, and mystical. Let us remind ourselves that this type of alleged practicality has brought the world almost to the verge of destruction.
What we need now is the kind of people whom the over-practical have overlooked. For we are convinced that we are spiritual beings living in a spiritual universe governed by spiritual laws. We have gone far enough in our research to prove that there is something within us — in our physical bodies, our environments, and in nature itself?that responds to our belief in it. We know that anyone who has this solid conviction in mind can prove this claim.
We may not yet have reached the promised land, but we already can see it — a light in the darkness, a new continent to be explored, a new world to be gained. We are indeed on the pathway of a great adventure, the adventure that Jesus must have had in mind when he said: “Greater works than these will you do.”
This achievement is not to be found in books, preachments, or proclamations. Fortunately, only the individual can make this discovery for himself or herself. This must be the starting point. The search must begin with the self. From this self-discovery we can then reach out to others and finally to the world. We need not be bound by the ignorance and superstition of others, nor by what they think or feel. We each have our own life to live, and as that life is without end, the progress we make along this eternal pathway is up to us. The cold fact is that such growth may only occur as a result of what we do to ourselves, not what something else does to us. We cannot, like a fairy godmother, wave a wand and have what we desire appear. Instead, we have to create a thought, a thought that is more powerful than any wand or any magic of mythology’s magicians.
We need to face life in the light of a new truth, a new understanding, and a conviction that we are in partnership with the Infinite. Then we may receive direct divine guidance and know how to live as human beings, because we first have discovered that we are divine beings.
I am one with the infinite and perfect Spirit, the giver of all good and perfect gifts. I open my mind and my heart, and, indeed, my body, to the inflow of this divine Presence. I know that this living Presence is in every cell of my body and every function of my being. I accept it as my health of body, here and now. I accept it as that which releases me from all that is unlike the perfect expression of life. There is no doubt or fear in my mind that could reject in any way all that God is, right here and right now.
My conscious acceptance of the fullness of the presence of God flows out in joy and love to bless those whom I would help, those with whom I would share this inner joy. And I decree that the loved one I now bring into the scope of my thought is blessed and healed through the presence of good that is within. The radiance of joy in my own heart brings happiness into the lives of all those about me. The abundance that prospers me supplies everyone around me with the good things of life. The light that warms the center of my own being so shines forth that all may find guidance and warmth and comfort in its rays. This is the light that lighteth every person that cometh into the world. This is the fount from which spring the living waters. I drink, and shall not thirst again. And even as I drink, I hand the chalice of my faith to all.
Realizing that we are in the midst of an ever-present good, and believing that there is a law that brings everything of its nature into our lives, we should learn to think and act as though every wrong condition of yesterday were converted into something new and better today.
I believe that all the mistakes I have ever made are swallowed up in a love, a peace, and a life greater than I am. Therefore I surrender all past mistakes into the keeping of this ever-present and perfect life. I affirm that love is guiding me into a real and deep cooperation with life and a sincere affection for everyone.
Today is a fresh beginning, a new start, and a joyous adventure on the pathway of eternal progress. Today is bright with hope and happy with fulfillment. Therefore I affirm that this is the day that God has made, that it is good, and that I find fulfillment in it.
2. The Open Mind
We know that things are not always what they seem. For instance, the earth and the sky do not meet. The horizon is simply the limitation of our vision, but not a thing of itself. We also discover that the hurt has largely disappeared from experiences we have had, which at the time we were having them seemed very trying.
We know that a two-dimensional mind looking at a cube would not see the cube; to it, the cube would look flat. Similarly, at our stage of evolution our three-dimensional minds might well be looking at that which is four-dimensional or more. So if our gaze is focused only on the physical, we might be looking right at the spiritual, the mental, or the intellectual, and not see it. Science has proven that there are almost infinite variations of vibrations of color and sound that the human eye and ear do not detect because they are not perfected enough.
There have been people like Jesus, and a good many others, who have experienced what we call cosmic consciousness. They have looked through the material universe into a spiritual universe, and they have announced this spiritual universe. If we could for one moment break through this shell that we are looking with, we would see reality. We believe that there is a Spirit in humans. This Spirit is God. This same Spirit is in all people, and the Spirit that is in you is the Spirit that is in me. It is one Spirit, just one, always one. The Spirit that is in the dog is the same Spirit. The life principle in the tree is the same thing. There is one Spirit, but there are different manifestations of it.
This thing that we call the personality is the objective evidence of the use we are making of our invisible and subjective individuality, the projection of the power, presence, and intelligence in us, as us. In other words, consciousness itself is God — one indivisible, infinite, and eternal reality. Our conscious use of our individuality personifies it.
I have always held that ideas do not belong to anyone. All ideas derive from God, therefore no idea belongs to anyone, but we all have access to every idea in the divine providence. It is like the figure two. What intelligent mathematician would say, — The figure two belongs to me? The mathematician knows that it is impersonal; the concept belongs to the universe. It can be used many times and there is just as much left.
We need to believe that reality is already delivered to us — reality as we see it, according to our awareness of it. This is the whole essence of spiritual mind treatment. How can we give an effective treatment if we are just mumbling a lot of words — A treatment must not be like that. We must believe in our own treatment if it is going to be effective. How can we believe in it unless we first believe that there is such a thing as Spirit, and that Spirit is right here responding to us and expressing as the experience or the condition we wish to enjoy?
All life is One, and God is the One Life in which we all live. Even the power by which we measure out our limitation is God. One of the great fallacies of theology has been the inability to see that negation and affirmation are identical, and are not two separate things. This is the hardest thing we will ever have to understand. When we treat someone for spiritual healing, if our minds do not get any farther than the appearance, then the appearance will not be changed. It is only as the mind transcends the appearance that the appearance can be changed, because a mental concept is the original causative factor.
In a certain sense we dramatize life. We are thinking, feeling, desiring, warm, and colorful beings, and I am glad we are, and I do not think we have to change at all. The great souls like Jesus, Emerson, and Whitman who delivered real spiritual insight for the ages have been very spontaneous, very sweet, very simple souls, and most of them even had a good sense of humor.
Here is the thing that Jesus uncovered: We do not have to become immortal; we are immortal. We do not have to become spiritual; we are spiritual. We do not have to become geniuses; we are geniuses. We do not have to go anywhere — “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
We wish to experiment with this reality to see what we can do with it. Every time we work for a spiritual healing we are experimenting to see what we can make the Mind do for us. The Mind is creative because it is God.
Through spiritual mind treatment we endeavor to more specifically express reality in our objective life, thus becoming more successful in every legitimate undertaking. The idea that God is trying us is all wrong. God is not trying us; we are merely gradually waking up, and the awakening is what we call a process of evolution, our awakening to what already is. I do not mean that a building is an eternal thing, but the mind that built it is an eternal thing. I think that every temporal thing which is good should be enjoyed to the utmost, because we are dealing with an infinite Spirit which by its own divine imagination creates all that is out of itself.
We must think of ourselves as being the way we would like to be. We do not make the thought creative; it is God. There never was a human thought. All thought is divine, even though it is divine in a humanly circumscribed way. We need not look for some other power; we have power now. It is the only power we will ever know. Since it is invisible, the essence of reality, it transcends anything that is visible. The appearance is true and real but not self-creative. We should forget all the negative arguments, forget all the reasons why it is not so, and begin to think of a few reasons why it is so.
To live affirmatively is to live as God lives, so we must plunge beneath the appearance. Here is where the test comes. We are testing ourselves to see whether we can forget evil and conceive more good, let go of limitation and take hold of the limitless, let go of the appearance and embrace reality.
3. Looking Back
Someone said we didn’t believe in Jesus; of course we believe in Jesus — and we believe in Buddha, in Socrates, and we believe in Abraham Lincoln! We believe in every Wayshower. And more than everything else, we believe in our own soul; the only immediate testimony you and I will ever have that we exist, or that God exists, or that Jesus showed us a way.
Religious Science is not something I invented; I didn’t make it up. I added a few flourishes to it, but it is the outcome of the thought and the feeling of the ages and the great minds of many denominations and religions. It embraces all of them — Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, and all of the different sects of the Christian faith. It embraces the affirmative part of all of them and comes up with the idea that the universe is filled with God. Each one of us is an outlet to God and an inlet to God.
Creation
Now what is the reason for our being? I’m going to tell you what I think; I think it exists for the delight of God. What else can it exist for? Someone will say you are here to get saved — claptrap, jargon, nonsense, asininity, and confusion — the universe exists not for us to save our souls, they are not lost, and I know darned well if I am lost there isn’t anybody in the world that will know where to look for me. Nor has the devil got us: there isn’t any devil, there isn’t any hell.
The universe must exist for the self-expression of God and the delight of God. You and I are born out of God, and we are born out of a divine urge that creates. God is the Spirit; the Spirit seeks; there is a pressure on everything to express life. The dog must bark, the cat must have kittens, the hen must lay eggs, the artist must paint (no matter how terrible it looks), the singer must sing, the dancer must dance — everything must express life. We are born to create, and we can’t help it. Why is that? Because God, the great Creator, is in us.
Suffering
There is nothing wrong with God. We may be wrong; we may suffer (we do); we may be impoverished (we are); we may be unhappy (we get that way). But we are born to be happy, to be abundantly supplied with every good thing, to have fun in living, to consciously unite with the Divine Power that is around us and within us, and to grow and expand forever.
Would it seem possible that by an immutable law, we consciously invite people’s reaction to us, which is held there until we release it ourselves? This is the only obsession and the only devils there are. We are the obsessing entity, and we are the only devil we will ever meet. I don’t believe in a devil, but sometimes I believe in a lot of them. I say I don’t believe in any hell we are going to, but I am constrained sometimes to believe in the one we are getting out of.
The most destructive force you and I have — and the most constructive — is our own unconscious emotional and thinking and feeling state. All so-called death is unnatural. So forget it. Walt Whitman, who was kind of lazy like I am — I find lazy people live longer and take it easier — said: I loaf and invite my soul. I wonder if you and I do enough loafing? There is a divine something inside us, of that I am sure. It would be terrific if we would say, — There is no law but my own soul shall set it under the one great Law of all life. — If I have lost the object of my love temporarily, yes, I’ll cry. Tears are made to be shed. I’m not afraid of tears, and I think it is a silly person who says he doesn’t have to shed them and never feels badly. It isn’t true. He is just lying to cover up a great truth, and that will never get him anywhere. This is not daydreaming or escaping from reality.
We are the most realistic people who ever lived on earth; however, it is a transcendental realism. We believe in the transcendence. Now we want love, we want happiness. How, if I sit here unhappy, hating everybody, saying the world is against me — which all may be true in appearance — how am I going to draw anything but that? The mind unconsciously pictures things and projects them and says, “Nobody likes me, I am not attractive; nobody loves me, I haven’t got what it takes.”
Spirit, soul, and body
We live on three planes: we are spirit, soul, and body. We meet people on all three planes: spiritual, mental, and physical. If there is in us a spiritual transcendence, if there is a universal concept, people will feel it. If there is in us a deep love for everyone, they will like it. If consciously or unconsciously we are embracing the world, they will know they are included. If we are hurt and sensitive, it will repel people from us.
If I am afraid that people won’t ever like me, they can’t. I have planted in them the dream about me that I am interpreting through them. I know the time is coming when even in psychiatry and psychology they will say there is only one universal subjectivity and we use it. There is no such thing as an individual mind at all; there is a mind principle, and we use it. There is a Spirit, and we live by it; there is a law that governs everything, and each one of us has our awareness in it, reacting back to us because the universe is one system. This I know.
I know of no other system of thought that teaches it, not in our field or similar fields. Yet Jesus taught it, “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” Laugh, and people will laugh with you.
Resolve
Now it is going to be a pretty tough thing. The truth is not always easy to follow. There is something in you and in me that transcends tragedy and sorrow and grief and loss. Power perennially springs from the innermost recesses of that unborn reality which is evermore being born in us today. This is the glory of our work; this is the power of what we do; this is the presence of the Living Spirit we adore: Beloved, you are that Thing you seek; you are that Thing you long for. The great and the good and the gracious God exists in you. God can make you happy and make me happy. And because we are happy, people around us will be happy; because we love, they will love us; because we embrace, they will embrace us. Surrender to the dignity of that law, to the love of that Presence, to the glory and joy of that Being, and no longer be afraid of the universe in which we live.
As we turn to the great heart of love in and around us and recognize the divine nature of our own being and consciously unify ourselves with the living Spirit, we thank God. And as we look at each other, we behold there the living Presence, love and friendship, and joy forever and forevermore.
4. The Authority of the soul
“The Word was with God and the Word was God.” “The word is nigh thee, even in thy own mouth that thou shouldst know it and do it.” What does this mean? It clearly states that whatever power there is in the Word (and it says it is All Power) is also in our own mouths. There is no avoiding the fact that the Bible claims for us the same power in our own life and our own world that it claims for God. In the lives of the majority, people do not realize that the Word is in their own mouths. What Word? Little do we realize that this Word that we are so earnestly seeking is every word we hear, think, or speak. Do we who are endeavoring to realize the greater truths of life always govern our words? If any word has power, it follows that all words have power. It is not in the few moments of spiritual meditation that we demonstrate, but we bring out the possibilities of the hidden word when we are allowing our thoughts to run in any direction; not in the short time spent in silence, but in the long hours stretching themselves into days, months, and years, we are always using the word.
An hour a day spent in silent meditation will not save us from the confusion of life; the fifty-one percent of a person’s thinking is what counts. It is easy when we are alone to brave the storms of life — surrounded by our own exalted atmosphere we feel the strength of the Infinite; we rise in Spirit, we think we are experiencing the ultimate of truth, that all things are ours. These moments in a busy life are well spent, but must unavoidably be brief — but what of the rest of the day, what of the busy street, of the marketplace, and of all the daily contact with life? Do we then obtain? Do we keep on in the same even way? Or do we fall before the outer confusion of our surroundings? We are still creating the word and setting it afloat in the great ethers of life. Are these words creating for us? Yes!
We who wish to practice metaphysics must first, last, and all the time, realize that we are centers of the divine activity; we must know that whatever God is in the Universal, God is in the world in which we live. We must know that all things are made out of Spirit, which is First Cause; nothing comes before Spirit. Operating upon itself out of itself, it makes what it will out of its own perfect desire. We must think of Spirit as the Father/ Mother of our own life, eternally bound to us, eternally binding us to it.
We must know that Spirit not only can manifest through us, but that it wishes to do so; — The Father seeks such to worship Him.? The practitioner who understands the truth knows that as long as God exists, we will exist — that we could no more become nonexistent than God could. Walking, talking, moving in God, we must not only see the Divine Being as the great unknown Cause, but we must go a step further and see God as the great self-knowing, understanding power of Infinite Intelligence, thinking through our own thought and willing into our own lives all peace and all good. More than this, God must become within our own soul the greater self, the inner life, the inner light that is to light our path to the attainment of the greater ideals. God is to become the great friend of our life, understanding us and helping us at all times to understand all things.
Like produces like, attracts like, creates like. If we could see our thought and take a picture of it and of our conditions we would see no difference between the two, for they are really but the inside and the outside of the same thing. We cannot make affirmations for fifteen minutes a day and spend the rest of our time denying the thing which we have affirmed, and affirming the thing which we have denied, and obtain the results which we seek. We send out the word and it sets the power in motion; then we think the opposite thing that neutralizes the first word, and zero is the result.
We cannot demonstrate one iota beyond our mental ability to conceive and steadfastly to embody. Infinite as Creative Power is, receptive and quick as it is, it can only become to us what we first think into it. God can do for us only what God can do through us.
Dare to say, “Great people have come and gone, and behold, a greater now stands here where I stand, and I am that one.” The world will laugh and perhaps scorn. The Christian world will hold up its hands in holy horror, lest you blaspheme; the unchristian world will smile knowingly. Neither the one nor the other will understand, but the understanding of either counts for nothing. You are now free, and your freedom will yet save the world from itself. The great soul finds within itself the divine companionship that we need. We find within ourselves the “Peace which passeth all understanding” and the power to do all things. All Power! We speak, our word is Law, and it is done unto us by all the power there is. Our word knows itself to be the law of life unto all for whom it is spoken and who receive it.
There is only one Power, but we use it in two ways, either to destroy or to save. The blessing and the curse are one and the same thing; the power of mind used either affirmatively or negatively, the word used in fear and doubt or in faith and assurance.
We trust our own word because first we “Know in whom we have believed.” The sooner we who are striving to attain realize that truth must become revealed through our own souls, and not that of another, the sooner we will attain. No more books, no more teachers, preachers, creeds, or candlesticks will we ever need. The old methods must vanish into their native nothingness, as the great realization that God is all in our life dawns upon our awakened thought.
We must then become immune from the collective belief in a hypnotic power that sets itself up as an authority. There is no other authority than your own soul, as “There is no law but that your soul has set.” Leave authorities to smaller minds and to those who need a leader because of this, their own self-confessed weakness, and be free. Dare to “Stand amidst the eternal way” and proclaim your own At-one-ment with all the power there is, was, or ever will be.
Practically the whole human race is hypnotized, thinking whatever it is told to think. We get our concepts from our physical environment, we say, “See sin, sickness and death, misery, unhappiness, and calamity.” And this concept we are giving to the creative, impersonal Mind, and so we are making a law for ourselves that will produce what we believe in.
Remember that in the divine plan no mistakes are made and that if God could have done it in a better way, God would have done it differently. No souls are lost, for all “live and move and have their being in Him” and “God is not a God of the dead but of the living, for in His sight all are alive.” Too long have we believed in the negative simply because we have allowed ourselves to become hypnotized by a few strong-minded people, and by those who have imposed upon the race a mass of false philosophy.
5. The Light of God
Jesus told us not to judge according to appearances, because there is a perfection at the center of things. This is what he meant when he said: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” It seems to me that the only way we can translate the meaning of these words is to accept them in their simplicity and interpret them as though they actually meant what he said — for Jesus never wasted time in idle talk. The more we study the simplicity of his style, the more we discover that it reached to the very foundation of life itself. Jesus had reduced his spiritual philosophy to a few simple, fundamental facts that he taught and lived.
The inner center of our being is what is meant by the word Christ, the “Anointed” or the “Illumined.” Christ means God-in-us. It means the Divine Son or Daughter at the center of every person’s life. If Jesus was right, there is a perfection forever established, a kingdom of God forever at hand, and a possibility of good that is available right now.
We should reread the words of Jesus as though we had never heard them before. Since the teachings of Jesus contain the key to right living, it would do us well to consider their meaning.
Jesus said, in effect: “God has made you. The Divine Spirit is already within you. This is your Father in your heaven who desires only your good.” Spirit has already provided a law of mind, giving you the use of a power greater than you are. And if you will only learn to live in recognition of this presence and in harmony with this law, then the miracle of life and love will take place. He coupled the knowledge of spiritual truth with the thought that there is a law of mind which acts upon our belief and brings into our experience those things which we believe.
Choosing our path
We should realize that Jesus was not talking about any particular age. He was not talking about just himself. For over and over again he said that what he did, we could do also — that what he was, we may become.
But it is also as though he were proclaiming: There is a presence within you that is already perfect. You need not worry over your previous mistakes, nor live in anxious anticipation of tomorrow. All of that is unnecessary. All you have to do is learn to live right today. And when you do, previous mistakes will be blotted out and your future will be taken care of.
But before this can happen we must learn to live right today. It is in this moment of time that we are to make the great decision. It is in this day in which we now are living that we must choose what path we are to follow. Shall we live in fear or in faith? Shall we live in confusion, or in the peace that comes from a deep and abiding conviction that there is a power greater than we are, ready, willing, and able to work for us? I think the outstanding thing in the new spiritual outlook of today is that we are called on to invite this presence, to experiment with this power, and actually to live as though God were present with us right now.
Jesus seemed to have laid no restriction on the willingness of this power greater than we are to operate for us, other than to say that everything we think and say and do should be based in a consciousness of love — in a realization that we must become one with others, even as we already are one with God. This is why he prayed “that they may be one, even as we are one.”
Training the mind to think differently is simple enough, but I would not say that it is easy, for a thing can be simple without being easy. And again this is where faith must be used — faith in a power greater than we are, based on the firm conviction that we live in a Divine Presence that wishes only good for us.
The final surrender
Common sense should teach us that we did not create the universe, nor need we be responsible for the laws of nature. All we can do is to use them. Now we are called on to reform all our thinking — to make a complete and final surrender of all our littleness, fears, doubts, and uncertainties to that great something within us that is calm and certain and sure. That something has never really left its divine kingdom, even though our minds have become so confused, so unhappy, and so filled with fear.
This is the great challenge. It is also the great adventure — the adventure of faith in a power greater than we are, the challenge of a love that abides forever. Therefore, say to yourself, quietly, and with deep conviction:
I realize that I am one with the eternal newness of life. All that Spirit is creates in and through me. My body is alive with the life of God. My body is illumined by the light of God. There is no darkness of discouragement, despair, or defeat. My mind is refreshed in that One Mind that eternally gives of itself to its creation.
All that God has is mine. I open my heart to accept the good gifts of joy, happiness, and enthusiasm, right now. I open my heart to know that that which is forever ageless is my source.
I decree that my body and my experiences shall reflect the image of life in all of its newness, and I shall move through the days of my years with gladness in my mind. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, knowing that my cup is full to overflowing with the only life there is — the life and the eternal youth of God. And so it is.
6. Health is Normal
Certainly in the successful experience of living, health is a prime factor. And in all probability nothing is of more importance, nothing of more immediate concern, than the present state of one’s health. From a historical viewpoint, the idea of a connection between health and state of mind is anything but new. It was Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, who said: In order to cure the human body it is necessary to have knowledge of whole things. And Paracelsus wrote: True medicine only arises from the creative knowledge of the last and deepest powers of the whole universe; only he who grasps the innermost nature of man can cure him in earnest.
The body
Everything in the physical world, animate and inanimate, is the result of some organizing factor, a purposeful activity, a formative element that indicates the involvement of an intelligence that functions in accord with law. This is what we encounter in the body. The body, in structure and function, is a mass of dynamic material held together by an intelligent organizing factor, which operates in accord with law.
That the body is a wonderful mechanism there is no doubt, but how many of us have realized just how amazing it is? Powerful muscles are instantly called into violent action by a minute amount of energy coursing along nerve pathways. Whether the outside temperature is very hot, even above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or extremely cold, the body maintains its normal temperature of approximately 98.6 degrees. A foreign particle enters the skin and immediately internal materials needed to isolate foreign matter, fight infection, and heal the break in the skin are rushed to the area. The heat developed within the body by muscular effort would be damaging beyond repair if a built-in cooling system did not start to function. What maintains the dynamic material of the body in a state of stability? What determines the equilibrium that is evidenced?
The curative power
The body’s ability to maintain its dynamic material at a level of equilibrium was described by physiologist Walter B. Cannon as homeostasis, which he termed the essential functioning of the autonomic nervous system maintaining a balance of activity in the body. There is something that seeks to regulate and control the body’s dynamic material at a normal level in the face of an almost infinite variety of conditions surrounding it and within it.
Another factor is the ability of the body to cure itself of disease in order to maintain a stable and constant condition. This natural curative force has long been recognized, and was advanced by Hippocrates and termed vis medicatrix naturae.
It is only through the existence of the factors of equilibrium, homeostasis, and vis medicatrix naturae that medicine can help to correct an undesirable bodily condition. Doctors can assist, supply aids, remove obstacles, and perform many other corrective measures, but after they have done all they can do, they must wait. They wait for the body to reestablish its equilibrium. They wait for the normal, natural curative forces of the body to take over and assert themselves. The physician cannot make a cut heal, cannot make new skin, and cannot make a new organ, but can only pave the way for the body’s corrective actions. These actions are accomplished through the manifestation of the invisible pattern or organizing factor in and through the dynamic material of which the body is composed. And this intelligent force would have to be consistent or life could never have maintained itself.
Your thinking and health
To what degree are we, as thinking entities capable of creative thought, able in any way to disrupt the flow of the organizing factor in and through us? Almost every shape and condition of illness has been in some way or other related to our pattern of thinking, a pattern of thinking that apparently is contradictory to the spiritual pattern of a perfect and healthy body. But is there not a larger implication—the extent and degree of our negative thought patterns that block the expression in us of the perfect spiritual pattern which created us to begin with and which seeks to maintain and sustain us?
With every pill we have prescribed for us we should also be given a creative prayer, a suggested way to correct our destructive patterns of thought. We must get ourselves and our limited human thinking out of the way so that the divine pattern of perfection can fully express itself in us. For who can make his or her own heart beat? What doctor can cause the blood to circulate? All we seem to be able to do through our own efforts is to confuse and confound the operation of Divine Life in us.
The source of health
We must turn from all our worries, anxieties, and fears about our body and know that there is a normal pattern of health, an organizing factor that knows what to do and how to do it, a perfect idea that exists and will express and manifest in us, as us, when we recognize it and accept it as doing so. The doctor can assist the body mechanically through surgery and medication; we can assist by the way we think and act.
The foundation for any idea that health is a normal state for the body (this is a fact, or else the body would never make any attempt to cure itself) rests in the concept that we are living in a perfect universe, regardless of any appearances to the contrary. This is the teaching of all the great and wise. It is the conclusion and the teaching of those upon whom the hope of the world makes its greatest claim, and we would be wise to follow the pattern of their thought.
Whether we fully understand it or not, our reality is oneness with God; anything and everything which appears to be attached to this reality that contradicts the divine nature, even though we must admit that it is an experience, cannot be the final truth of our being. Availing oneself of medical knowledge and wisdom, or the use of creative thought in the form of prayer for the attainment of health, are but different approaches to the same goal—health, which must exist as a spiritual reality. Both are often needed. The medical profession more and more recognizes the value and importance of prayer in the recovery of a patient.
Affirmative prayer for health
We realize that health is our natural, normal state. In prayer we are not concerned with illness, sickness, and disease, but with their opposites—health, wholeness, and perfection. We are not concerned with skepticism, doubt, or agnosticism, but with faith, trust, and belief. We seek to turn entirely from all objective appearances and affirm, even in the midst of extreme bodily confusion, the right action of God in and through the body, the manifestation of the perfect pattern of health, the perfect functioning of the organizing factor.
As we turn in thought to infinite Spirit as the source, and the only source, of our lives, and know It is good and perfect and expresses Itself as goodness and perfection in us, we are turning our thought away from whatever the appearances may be. As we turn our thought away from appearances, there is nothing to support or sustain them. As we continuously affirm the positive and good, we are automatically eliminating the negative, the undesirable. There is no necessity for any negative condition to exist within our bodies other than the necessity we ourselves insist upon.
7. The Spiritual Meaning of Freedom
From a talk given at the Wiltern Theatre, Sunday morning, July 4, 1937.
Ever since the dawn of civilization, ever since the first humans began to grasp the significant fact that they were individual beings in a universe that seemed to be more or less hostile to them, the entire search of the human mind, its whole endeavor, has been to get free from evil, from bondage and the shackles of lack, want, fear, superstition, uncertainty, pain, disease, poverty, and fear of the hereafter. And because of this, human systems exist — organized philosophies spring up, sciences develop, educational systems are conducted, collective security is sought after, and religions are formulated to allay the fear of humankind relative to the soul.
The great demand in the world today is for a sense of security, freedom, and liberty. But we must be very certain that we do not swap one image of bondage for another. I have read a large part of the religious and philosophic history of the world and I have noticed that almost invariably, when the world traded one kind of religion for another, it didn’t get a good deal. The Pilgrim Fathers who came to the shores of New England came to worship God in their own way, but the moment they got there, everybody in the colony worshiped God in the way that the strong-minded members of that colony decided was the way to worship God. That was not freedom.
Even in our newer religions of the last seventy-five or a hundred years, very frequently we meet people who say they have now found the truth, and then, unfortunately, a large majority of them disclose that they merely have found an idea they liked and called it the truth because they were egotistical, self-conscious, self-righteous people with an attitude of condemnation toward others. That is not the truth. In studying one system of thought after another that has transpired in the last seven thousand years of human history, I have noted how extremely difficult it is for the human mind to conceive liberty without license, without egotism; and we can only give birth to freedom when we have conceived liberty.
True freedom — true liberty — has something cosmic behind it. If the time has come that modern science has proved that we cannot move a piece of paper without changing the balance of the entire physical universe; if we have come to the place where we know that the stuff of which our physical bodies are made is the same stuff of which the planets are made; if we have come to the place where such a profound unity is maintained that physicists believe there is no such thing as disunity in the physical world; then we can easily see what the great spiritual leaders of the ages meant when they told us of that greater unity in which we all live and move and have our being, and that the idea of freedom itself is tied up with the true concept of the unity of good. If our nature is one, if God is one — and we know that God must be one, for the universe cannot be divided against itself — then we are all tied into an indivisible unity. We shall have to get back to this unity to find the meaning of freedom. Nothing in any part of this cosmic whole could be considered freedom that would destroy the liberty of some other part of it. That would be self-destruction, would it not? As Jesus pointed out two thousand years ago, that would be a kingdom divided against itself. The kingdom of God is one kingdom. So we know that true liberty must spring from true unity.
We are bound into a supreme unity, we are tied into an immutable law of irrevocable cause and effect — that is unity moving into action. Cause and effect is something that happens as a result of the use of unity. Consequently we are one even while we are many, and since each one of us is a part of the whole, if we seek to destroy each other we only ultimately hurt ourselves. That is the great lesson of life.
Freedom, then, will come only in such degree as we no longer do anything that hurts anyone, but that does not mean we have to become spiritual or intellectual doormats. I do not believe in that. Nothing in my belief causes me to feel that God or the Creative Principle wants me to suffer for myself or for anyone else. I do it, I have always done it, perhaps I always shall in this world — but I know that it is wrong. How can the Supreme Being desire my suffering without imposing that suffering, and what kind of a universe has a God who suffers and imposes suffering in a changeless reality? The whole theology and religious reaction of people who believe that arises out of morbidity and fear and superstition and nothing else.
Well, it is not so — and still we suffer. Why? Because we do not understand. We might say that the world suffered darkness until somebody discovered electricity. It suffered crawling around on the face of the earth until technology was developed so we could fly and drive. It suffers limitation, not because the Infinite imposes limitation, but because the world does not understand its freedom. And when it begins to develop its freedom, seldom does it do it directly; it generally creates a new bondage. When we kill the old devil we are very likely to give birth to a new and more subtle one. War is more to be feared than ever before because we have more knowledge without more wisdom. And final freedom will come only as it is tied into divine wisdom.
What is divine wisdom? I am no prophet, but I would suggest that divine wisdom must be as simple and profound as this: Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cannot be divided against itself.” I think that is all there is to divine wisdom. The kingdom of God cannot and will not be divided; so long as I will seek to hurt, I will be hurt.
We desire freedom. We do not like evil, we do not like pain, we do not like poverty, we do not like unhappiness. Why should we? None of us likes to go to bed and worry all night and get up tired out in the morning. God does not impose it on us. Why do we do it? Because we sense freedom, we sense liberty, we sense God, yet out here in the objective world we experience limitation; and the argument is between what we feel ought to take place and what we see and the world experiences. It seems as though we are two people, one that experiences evil and one that knows there should be no evil.
The evolution of freedom in the human mind is a slow process. Many movements in the world that claim to be seeking liberty only produce new kinds of bondage. We should beware of them. They are born out of the idea of depression; they are born out of the spirit of bondage. If we want freedom, we must understand that freedom can never come by the imposition of a will of the minority over the majority. It is born finally, and only in such degree as some system is devised whereby individuals are allowed complete freedom so long as they do not, in their freedom, impose bondage on someone else.
I believe that the true spirit of democracy is a spiritual conception where there is freedom, liberty without license, and a flexibility that makes evolution possible on the foundation of freedom. As we enter into the spirit of the meaning of Independence Day, the day when liberty, symbolically, was conceived, the day when freedom, objectively, in our country was announced, we should think of it not merely as a political system or form of government, but we should think of it as a spiritual conception, an idea in the Divine Mind Itself, taking form in human experience; we should learn to love that liberty, and in loving the idea we should learn to tenderly and prayerfully handle the embodiment of that idea and nourish it always to greater strength; we should really conceive again the great spiritual conception of that rugged man of God who said: “…that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
8. See Yourself As You Want to Be
The Technique of Visualization
There is, in the universe, a Spirit that is self-knowing, and a law that is not self-knowing, but self-propelling, which obeys Spirit. We are self-knowing centers in a law that has no volition other than to obey our impulses. We are ignorant of this and consequently bring upon ourselves, through a direct act of law, all the experiences that we suffer. Should we completely change our mode of thinking, we would completely change our environment. We are, today, the sum total of all our thoughts and acts, the objectification of our subjective states of consciousness; our subjective state of thought decides what is to happen to us objectively.
Our subjective state of thought is constantly radiating into universal mental law the images of our entire belief in life, and from these images of unconscious thought spring all our outward conditions. The key, then, to success and happiness, is the conscious control of thought and a continuous radiation of constructive thinking and acting. This key will unlock the treasure house of the Infinite and reveal to us undreamed-of opportunities and experiences.
We have brought upon ourselves all our troubles through ignorance of the law, which of itself is always a law of liberty, but which we have misused through misunderstanding the true meaning of life. We must reverse the entire process of our thinking and learn to think of ourselves only in terms of spiritual valuation, which alone is enduring and real.
Visualization means to create a mental picture of ourselves as we would like to be, to hand this picture over to the Universal Law of execution and to believe implicitly that it will act. But our present ability to visualize depends upon our present state of thought; it is limited to previous experiences and impressions. By the act of visualization, we can bring into our experience only that which we can mentally image — and we can image only that which we know. Perhaps this is why Solomon said, “With all thy getting, get understanding.”
Plotinus said something to the effect that our work is always done better when we face Spirit, even though our back is turned to our work; Emerson tells us that a betterment in conditions always follows the Divine Influx; Jesus tells us to seek the upper kingdom first and that all things will be added. All the great spiritual teachers have mentioned that we need to look for higher forms of thought if we wish to experience better things. By visualization, we can only bring into our experience something we presently know about; we cannot reach beyond our mental grasp nor can we jump away from our own shadow.
It is necessary, then, to find higher visions and broader vistas of thought if we are to transcend our previous experiences. This can be done only by letting the higher mind rule, by conscious contact with greater reality. Visualization is always incomplete unless the thought is first impressed with the greater possibility and made receptive to the Divine Influx. Spirit is always ready to flow through our mentality, but we are individuals and must let it flow by the act of our self-choice.
Deep within our subjective mentality are imprinted the memories of previous experiences. Hidden away in the inner recesses of thought, generally unknown to us, are the silent causes of our outward conditions. But the law is always acting, and we are ever perpetuating experiences that we no longer want to have. What we need is a new outlook upon life, a broader vision, a deeper realization. This can come only from the Spirit that knows all things.
The conscious use of law is for the purpose of neutralizing false images of thought and, in their stead, creating true ones. We must exchange the human for the more nearly divine; we must learn to think as we feel God must think about us.
Now we know that God is perfect and a complete unit; consequently, if we would think as God thinks, we must do so from the basis of unity; the unity of Good and the perfection of being. But we cannot think from the unity of Good while we still believe in evil in any of its apparent forms, for clear thinking disavows evil and believes only in the Good.
It is useless to visualize unless we bear this in mind. God is One, not two. Unity, then, must be the basis of all our thinking. Goodness must be paramount if we are to visualize correctly and effectively.
We are to believe, then, that our thought operates through a field that is unconditioned and absolute, and if our thought is in alignment with reality, it will become powerful. This is more than holding thoughts and has nothing whatsoever to do with suggestion in any of its forms. God does not suggest, It knows; and Its knowledge is law and this law is perfect.
There is no power in holding thoughts, but there is power in knowing the Truth, and that Truth acts through the law. The will is not used in visualization, but the imagination is used. The will enables us to imagine, or image, along the lines of our self-choice. Will holds out the mold; imagination fills the concept with spiritual realization, and the law executes the deed.
Right thinking straightens out our thought for the purpose of right perception; right perception is God and God is All. God operates by self-knowing; the law acts by the impulse and outpush of Spirit.
That vision which is based upon harmony and unity is complete and unconditioned. Spirit knows all things, and the law can do anything. By the conscious intelligence of the inner Spirit we set the law in motion for definite purposes. Any purpose that is constructive is legitimate and right. Spirit intends us to have and enjoy all things.
We must feel and know that back of our word there is a power that is greater than the apparent consciousness that sets it in motion. When we visualize we must think in the Absolute, perceive in the Absolute, see in the Absolute, and then let the law alone to execute itself.
Visualization from this standpoint is a creative act that is never bothered by any existing condition or conditions. It is absolute, because it is backed by an immutable law and power.
Once we are certain that our whole thought is harmonious and unified with good, we may ask for what we want, and it shall be done unto us by the law. But it is dangerous to use this law unless we are absolutely certain of right visualization, for thoughts are things and thoughts move in circles and will ultimately bring back to us exactly what we send out. We must each answer to ourselves, for ourselves, and all according to a perfect law.
In visualizing, put the past entirely behind; do not think of the future, but make your thought perceive the ever-present reality. Spirit knows no past and no future, and the law knows only to do. See yourself as you would like to be, but think of no person or persons in connection with your mental picture.
Think of yourself as you would like to be and calmly state that you are now in the position that you care to be in; that you are now doing the things you would like to be doing; that you now possess the things you want to possess. Look at your picture as you would view a landscape, mentally dwelling on this picture, trying to feel the reality of it, until you can sense that it is a reality; then leave the entire picture for the law to work out for you, returning to your everyday affairs with perfect confidence that something is really taking place on the invisible side of your life, and that you will experience in outward form all your inner aspirations.
The following is an example of self-visualization:
Let go of everything. Clear your thought of every impression. Do not will or wish anything. In the silence of your own thought, feel that you are surrounded by an Infinite Spirit, that there is an influx from this Spirit flowing through you. Let the Mind of this Spirit be your Mind and say:
“Infinite Spirit within me, which is God, All-Knowing, All-Wise, All-Perfect One, there is no life apart from You, and You are that which I am. I am whole because you are whole; I am perfect because You are perfect; I know because You know; I Am because You are. My word is the law unto itself through the one great law of perfect liberty and perfect action.” At this point, visualize your desire, draw a complete picture of it in your thought, and realize that it Now Is.
9. Change is Necessary
We are living in a world of continual change, a world in which thought, thing, and experience are all in a constant state of flux. It is the very nature of the universe that there should be continual change and variation. It is a living world, the creation of a living creative Intelligence, not a static world created by a God now dead or departed who has left it to decay. No. It is vital and alive. The Mind that created it is not apart from it, but is always active in and through it.
But behind that which changes, behind that which causes the change, we have found that there is something stable and changeless, something eternal upon which all external events depend for their very existence. Behind the endless process of change and the infinite variety of experience and expression there is That which does not change.
We should never be afraid of change, never fearful of what will come. Instead we should bring to bear on each new event the influence of the creative nature of our thought—an influence that is founded on an inward calm, a sense of certainty and peace, which will reflect itself in the changing scene of our everyday lives.
As we look for and discover the nature of the Infinite which does not change, we find that we develop a complete trust in Its integrity. We are again reminded of Einstein’s remark that “God does not play dice with the cosmos.” And we then come to possess a feeling of security which is enhanced by the knowledge that each of us has a personal and intimate relationship with the Infinite. It is from this inward basis of certainty—this sense and awareness of our relationship to God, who is changeless but from whom flow infinite expressions—that all our thoughts should flow.
Infinite variety
In our daily living we encounter infinite variety in all things. But behind the expression there is a pattern or form which is the foundation. There is a unity, but not a uniformity, that exists between all similar expressions, a unity that resides in the ultimate creative nature of the Universe, a unity that allows freedom of individual expression.
An obvious lesson can be learned if we look at ourselves, our families, our friends. We discover that we are all human beings, all pretty much the same. A head, two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth, a body, arms, and legs. And as we look farther afield at the entire human race, we find some races are tall, others short—some white, others black, yellow, or red. But behind every person, every race, there is the basic pattern, a pattern that is individually expressed. If there were not the possibility of variation of expression, life could never have developed its infinite variety. And if there had not been a basic pattern behind the development of humankind, there never would have been any way for it to develop.
The great explosion
One of the most amazing events in the development of humankind into its present physical form occurred in the early stages of its existence. According to anthropologist Loren Eiseley, humans at that time, in physical structure and general appearance, gave evidence of the people to come. The pattern existed. But through infinite changes and variations, a fuller and more perfect expression occurred. Then an amazing thing happened. For no reason that scientists have been able to determine, humans developed an enlarged brain—a brain far beyond the capacity needed for the containment of cells necessary for the operation of the senses for survival and the automatic functioning of the physical body. Without any previous indication, without any comparable thing occurring elsewhere in any living thing, humans suddenly (in terms of geological time) possessed a brain that was capable of functioning far beyond any demands that could ever be made on it by the physical body. It was an elaborate instrument that was capable of being a channel for thought, creative thought.
Why did it appear? What caused it to appear? What was its purpose? There is no academic answer forthcoming through the strict limitations science places upon itself. But those who have devoted their lives to science sometimes step outside their laboratories, for a moment turn aside from their microscopes, and say what they think.
Freedom from domination
Some scientists say that with the advent of this unpredictable development in humankind, something new appears to have been injected into God’s creation. Something different had been brought into creation by the Mind behind all creation—a unique expression of Itself. Thus we were freed from many of the instinctive limitations of our physical bodies. We were aware of ourselves! We could think! Infinite Mind is the only thing that can be ascertained to have thought, consciousness, and intelligence, and now It established for Itself, in and through humankind, a means of awareness, creativeness, and consciousness of what It had created. With the development of the larger brain in humans, Mind came forth anew into Its creation, ushering in a whole new era, the future of which we but little realize. We now need to learn to free ourselves from the complete domination of the instinctive functioning of the nervous system, although it serves our physical body well and has brought it to the high degree of perfection which it now exhibits.
The physical body has always faced a threat in one of two ways: either to fight or to escape through flight. This same instinctive reaction is of value to us today, but we need to place a limitation on its action. We deal largely with ideas in our daily lives, and when we encounter one we do not like, our bodies are whipped up to engage in combat or prepared for flight. Even though the body is never able actually to do anything about either fighting or fleeing from an idea, the resulting wear and tear are most disastrous.
We now need to discover that new thing which resides within us and is ever seeking fuller expression through us, and we shall find that it is the individualization in us of the infinite conscious creative Intelligence.
Nonresistance
We generally seem to resist change, even that which is better for us. We also appear to resist being what we really are. We need to learn carefully and surely to permit ourselves to accept the fuller expression of the Mind that is within us. Against this there must be no resistance. For in Its creative flow through us rests our entire future—the greater person we may be and the richer life we desire to enjoy.
When we establish within our thought a nonresistance to that Power which is greater than we are, we are at the same time accepting within ourselves a stability that is the stability of the universe. We find ourselves secure, for we know that we are part of That which causes change but is never affected by any of the changes. As we gradually attain this sense of security, we will find that we view the changes occurring about us in a proper perspective. We will have stopped letting ourselves be blown about like straws in the wind or tossed helplessly about in a turbulent sea whose waves are doubt and fear and anxiety.
We may liken ourselves to the atom, whose center or nucleus is relatively stable. Around it revolve the electrons in orderly, harmonious orbits. In much the same way, once we discover the stable center that resides within us, all our experiences will revolve around us in an orderly way. Once our consciousness becomes stabilized through security founded on a conviction of the nature of God, and we come to have an inner awareness that the Creative Intelligence of the universe resides at the center of us, then will our experiences take on a pattern of harmony—a natural outflowing of our inner security.
10. The Final Sermon by the Sea
Having had the privilege of starting Religious Science, I would wish, will, and desire above all things else that the simplicity and purity of our teaching could never be violated. There is a purpose of simplicity, a consciousness of unity, a straight-line thinking in our philosophy that has never appeared before in the world outside of the teachings of men like Jesus and Emerson.
There was nothing obscure in the teaching of Jesus. He just said that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Why don’t you take it? He said that there is nothing but God. Why don’t you believe it? He was the last of the great Jewish prophets, the greatest line of emotional prophets the world has ever known.
We also find a great intellectualism in Emerson, who never contradicted himself. He gave us the most simple statement of intellectual spiritual perception, probably, that has ever been put into print. As that of Jesus, it was most simple, direct, meaningful, and feelingful. We inherit this.
It would be my desire that simplicity and purity and directness, that straight thinking, should never depart from the techniques of our practitioners, or instructions of our teachers, or understanding of our lay people. It is the most direct impartation of Divine Wisdom that has ever come to the world, because it incorporates the precepts of Jesus and Emerson and Buddha and all the rest of the wise. And I would desire that in our teaching there should never be any arrogance, for it always indicates spiritual immaturity to me. Others will arise who will know more than we do; they won’t be better or worse, they will be different and know more than we do. Evolution is forward.
I would that we should not build, out of the body of our simplicity and grandeur and beauty, other creeds loaded with superstition, a fear of the unknown, and a dread of the unseen. We have discovered a pearl of great price, we have discovered the rarest gem that has ever found setting in the intellect of the human race—complete simplicity, complete directness, a freedom from fear and superstition about the unknown and about God.
And we have rediscovered that which the great, the good, and the wise have sung about and thought about—the imprisoned splendor within ourselves and within each other—and have direct contact with it. Whether we call it the Christ in us, or the Buddha, or Atman, or just the Son of God the living Spirit, makes no difference. You and I are witness to the divine fact and we have discovered an authority beyond our minds, even though our minds utilize it. Out of this we have prepared ourselves, I think, I hope, I pray and believe.
Find me one person who is for something and against nothing, who is redeemed enough not to condemn others out of the burden of his soul, and I will find another savior, another Jesus, and an exalted human being.
Find me one person who no longer has any fear of the universe, or of God, or of man, or of anything else, and you will have brought to me someone in whose presence we may sit and fear shall vanish as clouds before the sunlight.
Find me someone who has redeemed his own soul, and he shall become my redeemer.
Find me someone who has given all that he has in love, without morbidity, and I will have found the lover of my soul. Is not this true? Why? Because he will have revealed to me the nature of God and proved to me the possibility of all human souls.
This is what Religious Science stands for. It is not a new dogmatism, it is not a new authority generated from a new alleged revelation of the God who never revealed anything to anybody, as such, else he could not have revealed all things to all people. There is no special dispensation of Providence, but there is a specialized dispensation which the great and good and wise and just have known, even though they knew it intuitively.
Find me one person who can get his own littleness out of the way and he shall reveal to me the immeasurable magnitude of the universe in which I live.
Find me one person who knows how to talk to God, really, and I shall walk with him through the woods and everything that seems inanimate will respond—the leaves of the trees will clap their hands, the grass will grow soft under him.
Find me one person who communes with cause and effect, and in the evening, the evening star will sing to him and the darkness will turn to light. Through him, as the woman who touched the hem of the garment of Christ was healed, shall I be healed of all loneliness forever.
Find me someone who is no longer sad, whose memory has been redeemed from morbidity, and I shall hear laughter.
Find me someone whose song is really celestial, because it is the outburst of the cosmic urge to sing, and I shall hear the music of the spheres.
Find me one person who no longer doubts, no longer wavers. But not one who with a proclamation of superiority says: “Look at me, I have arrived!” I will not listen to that. Only that which reveals me to myself can be a message to me; only that which gives me back to myself can save me; only that which leads me to the God within myself can reveal God. And only that person can do it to whom the vision has come through his own efforts, through the gift of God. Of course, the grace of God abounds by divine givingness. God has forever hung himself upon the cross of men’s indifference; God has forever, but without suffering, given himself but we have not received the gift.
Find me one person who has so completely divorced from himself all arrogance, and you will have discovered for me an open pathway to the kingdom of God here and now. Up until now the search has been in far-off corners of the earth and we have knelt upon a prayer rug and been wafted away, in our morbid and fearful imagination, over ethers of nothingness to places that have no existence, the temples of our unbelief, and we have come back empty. “What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?…”
Find me somebody who has detached his emotional and psychological ego from the real self, without having to deny the place it plays in the scheme of things and without slaying any part of himself because the transcendence is there also, and I will have discovered the Ineffable in this individual and a direct pathway for the communion of my own soul.
We have come to Asilomar, spent this wonderful week together in love for each other and adoration for the God we believe in. Many wonderful things have happened that would seem miracles if we didn’t know about them. And now we meet for this fond farewell after the spiritual bath of peace, the baptism of the spirit. Not through me, but you to me and I to you through each other—the revelation of the self to the self—we go back into the highways and byways of life with something so great that never again will anything be quite the same. A little more light shall come, a little greater glory added to the glory that we already possess, a deeper consciousness, a higher aspiration, a broader certainty of the mind.
You are Religious Science. I am not. I am only the one who put something together. I do not even take myself seriously, but I take what I am doing seriously. You are Religious Science—our ministers, our teachers, our practitioners, our laymen. You find me one thousand people in the world who know what Religious Science is and use it, and live it as it is, and I’ll myself live to see a new world, a new heaven, and a new earth here. There is a cosmic Power wrapped up in a cosmic Consciousness and Purposiveness that is equal to the vision which releases it.
What I am saying is this: There is a Law that backs up the vision, and the Law is immutable. “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” There is a Power transcendent beyond our needs, our little wants. Demonstrating a dime is good if one needs it, or healing oneself of a pain is certainly good if one has it, but beyond that, at the real feast at the tabernacle of the Almighty, in the temple of the living God, in the banquet hall of heaven, there is something beyond anything that you and I have touched.
Find one thousand people who know that, and use it, and the world will no longer be famished. How important it is that each one of us in his simple way shall live from God to God, with God, in God, and to each other. That is why we are here, and we are taking back with us, I trust, a vision and an inspiration, something beyond a hope and a longing, that the living Spirit shall through us walk anew into its own creation and a new glory come with a new dawn.
11. Law of Our Lives: The Impersonal Face of God
Writing in the early years of the twentieth century, Ernest Holmes followed the conventions of the day in using masculine terms to represent both genders. Rather than attempt to rewrite a classic, we have retained his original language. —Editor
Spirit creates through law. The law is always mind in action. Mind cannot act unless intelligence sets it in motion. In the great universal mind, man is a center of intelligence, and every time he thinks he sets mind into action. What is the activity of this mind in relation to man’s thought? It has to be one of mental correspondence; that is, mind has to reflect whatever thought is cast into it. Wonderful as Universal Mind is, it has no choice but to create whatever thought is given it; if it could contradict that thought, it would not be a unit, since this would be recognizing something outside itself. This is a point in Truth which should not be overlooked. The One Mind knows only its own ability to make whatever is given It; It sees no other power and never analyzes or dissects; It simply knows, and the reason why people do not understand this is that they have not realized what mind is. The ordinary individual thinks of mind only from the limitation of his own environment. The concept he has of mind is the concept of his own thinking, which is very limited.
We are surrounded by an All-Seeing, All-Knowing Mind, which is One and runs through all. The belief in the dual mind has destroyed practically all philosophies and religions of the ages, and will continue to do so until the world comes to see that there is but One. Whatever name is given it there is but One. It is this One that creates for us, whatever we believe. Our thought operative through this One produces all our affairs. We are all centers in this Mind, centers of creative thought activity. There is nothing which appears in the manifest Universe other than an objectified thought, whether it be a bump on your head, a growth on your foot, or a planet. It could not be there were it not made out of Mind, for mind is all there is to make anything out of. Whatever is made is made out of it. Nothing exists or can exist without a source from which it springs.
We are not dealing with a negative as well as a positive Power—not two powers but one; a power that sees neither good nor evil as we see it. It knows only that it is all, and since it is all, it creates whatever is given it. From our limited standpoint we often think of good and evil; not realizing that, as yet, we do not know the one from the other. What we call good today, we may call evil tomorrow, and what we think to be evil today, we may tomorrow proclaim as the greatest good we have known. Not so with the Great Universal Power of Mind; It sees only Itself and Its infinite ability to create.
To the thinking person this will mean much; he will see that he is no longer living in a limited universe, a world of powers, but that he is immersed in an Infinite Creative Medium which, because of Its Nature, has to create for him whatever he believes. Jesus understood this, and in a few simple words, laid down the law of life: “It is done unto all people as they believe.” This is a great thing to keep in mind. It is done unto us; we do not have to do it, for it is done unto us of a power that knows itself to be all there is. Could we even believe that some material mountain would be moved, the power is there to do it. Without this belief there is no real impulse for the Creative Mind, and we do not get an affirmative answer. We must realize more clearly that this Great Power has to operate through us.
Creative Mind cannot force itself upon us, because we have the power of self-choice. It recognizes us when we recognize it. When we think that we are limited or have not been heard, it must take that thought and bring it into manifestation for us.
When we look about us and see nature so beautiful, so lavish, and so limitless, when we realize that something, some power, is behind all, and sees to it that plenty obtains everywhere, so that in all things manifest there is more than could be used; and when on the other hand we see man so limited, sick, sad and needy, we are disposed to ask this question: “Is God good after all? Does He really care for the people of His creation? Why am I sick? Why am I poor?” Little do we realize that the answer is in our own mouths, in the creative power of our own thought. The average person when told the Truth will still seek some other way. God has already done for us—in a mechanical way—all that He can do; and having been given the ability, we will have to do for ourselves the rest. Yet the Great Power is always near, ready at any time to help, but we must use it according to its own nature in harmony with its laws. Man should learn that he himself is the center of this Divine activity. Realizing this, he must seek more and more to utilize his own Divine nature, and by so doing he will come more fully under the protection of the great laws that govern all life, manifest and unmanifest. Whatever man is, he must find that because he is made out of God, he must be of the same nature. This Infinite One cannot know anything outside of itself, anything that would be a contradiction of its Divine nature; man’s ignorance of his real nature binds him with his own freedom, until he comes to see things as they really are, and not as they appear to be.
In the Infinity of mind, which is the principle of all metaphysics and of all life, there is nothing but mind, and that which mind does. That is all there is in the Universe. That is all there ever was or ever will be. This mind is acted upon by our thought, and so our thought becomes the law of our lives. It is just as much a law in our individual lives as God’s thought is in the larger life of the Universe.
For the sake of clearness, think of yourself as in this Mind, think of yourself as a center in it. That is your principle. You think, and Mind produces the thing. One of the big points to remember is that we do not have to create; all that we have to do is to think. Mind, the only Mind that there is, creates.
Few people seem to understand the nature of the law and so think that they have got to do something, even if it is only holding a thought; thinking or knowing is what does the thing. It will make it much easier for us when we realize that we do not have to make anything, just to know; that there is something back of the knowing which does the work for us.
That person gets the best results who realizes that he can use this divine principle; he who can get the clearest concept of his idea, and who can rely on Mind to do for him, keeping everything out of his thought that would contradict the supremacy of Spirit or Mind.
By simply holding a thought we could not make anything, but by knowing in mind, what cannot we do?
This article was taken from Ernest Holmes’ first book, Creative Mind, which is available in a beautiful collector’s edition ($15.95) from DeVorss.
12. Opening Our Minds to God
Spirit responds to us by corresponding to our states of thought. We enter into Spirit in such degree as we comprehend It. It enters into us through correspondence in such degree as we comprehend It. Prayer, communion with Spirit, and meditation or contemplation are for the purpose of unifying our minds with the Universal Mind, opening up the avenues of our thought to a greater influx.
Spirit is ever ready, ever waiting, because Its nature is to incarnate. The greater our receptivity and comprehension, the more complete Its flow. The Universe is not only a spiritual system, it is an orderly system. We are living under a government of law, always, whether we deal with the soul, the body, or Spirit, whether we are dealing with physics or with metaphysics. The law is subject to Spirit, which does not mean that Spirit is capricious and may create a law only to break it, but does mean that law is subject to Spirit, in that the law is Spirit’s servant, just as all the laws of nature are our servants and obey us insofar as we understand them and properly use them. Spirit, being Omniscient, understands and properly uses all law. Hence, Spirit never contradicts Its own nature, is always harmonious, is complete within Itself; It exists in a state of perpetual bliss and always acts in accord with the law of Its own being.
We are of like nature to this supreme Spirit. Everything exists within It. We exist within It, having arrived at a state of consciousness whereby we can consciously approach It, believe in It, and receive It. In receiving Spirit, we receive the law which is Its servant, and that law becomes our servant.
We are intelligent beings living in an intelligent universe that responds to our mental states, and insofar as we learn to control those mental states, we shall automatically control our environment. This is what is meant by the practical application of the principles of Science of Mind to the problems of everyday living. This is what is meant by demonstration.
Naturally our first thought is that we would like to demonstrate health of body, peace of mind, prosperity in our affairs, to neutralize a circumstance which is unhappy, or to attract to ourself some good which we have not been enjoying. Such a desire is natural and in every way normal, and the possibility of such demonstration already exists within the mind of every living soul. Every one of us has within ourself the power to consciously cooperate with the spiritual side of our existence in such a way that it will create for us a new body and a new environment and a greater happiness. But the greatest good which this philosophy of life brings to us is a sense of certainty, a sense of the reality of our own soul, of the continuity of our own individualized being, and the relationship of this self to the great Whole.
The greatest good that can come to us is the forming of an absolute certainty of ourself and of our relationship to the Universe, forever removing the sense of heaven as being outside ourself, the fear of hell, or any future state of uncertainty. We are each a part of the only life there is, some part of the Eternal God. We are forever reaching out, forever gaining, growing, expanding; Spirit is forever incarnating Itself in us.
Such an understanding teaches us that there can never come a time when we shall stop progressing, that age is an illusion, that limitation is a mistake, that unhappiness is ignorance. We cannot be afraid when we know the truth. The greatest good accompanying such an understanding of truth will be the elimination of fear.
This understanding will rob us of our loneliness and give us a sense of security which knows no fear, a peace without which no life can be happy, a poise which is founded on this peace, and a power which is the result of the union of peace with poise.
We can be certain that there is an Intelligence in the Universe to which we may come, which will inspire and guide us, a love which overshadows. God is real to the one who believes in the supreme Spirit, real to the soul which senses its unity with the Whole. Every day and every hour we are meeting the eternal realities of life, and in such degree as we cooperate with these eternal realities in love, peace, wisdom, and joy, believing and receiving, we are automatically blessed.
It is not by a terrific mental struggle or soul-strain that we arrive at this goal, but through a quiet expectation, a joyful anticipation, the calm recognition that Love, the Living Spirit Almighty, is all the peace, power, and good there is.
A mental treatment is a definite act of the conscious mind, setting the law in motion for the one specified in the treatment. A treatment is a spiritual entity in the mental world, fully equipped with the intelligence and the power to demonstrate itself.
When we are giving a treatment, we believe that our word is operated upon by an intelligent, creative agency which has at its disposal the ways, the methods, the means, and the inclination to receive our treatment and to create those circumstances which would be the logical outcome of this treatment.
If we wish to demonstrate supply we would not say, “I am a multimillionaire,” but we would seek to realize that Infinite Substance is irresistible supply. We would say to ourself, “I am surrounded by Pure Spirit—Perfect Law, Divine Order, and limitless substance—that intelligently responds to me. It is not only around me, but it is also in me; it is around and in everything. It is the essence of perfect action. It is perfect action in my affairs. Daily I am guided by this Divine Intelligence, I am not allowed to make mistakes, I am compelled to make the right choice at the right time; there is no confusion in my mind, no doubt whatsoever. I am certain, expectant, and receptive.”
As the result of statements such as these, we reeducate our mind, recreating and redirecting the subjective state of our thought. The subjective state of our thought decides what is going to happen to us, and because the subjective state of our thought often contradicts our conscious desires, a sense of doubt arises.
When we affirm the presence of good, this sense of doubt is an echo of previous experiences; it is the judgment according to appearances which we must be careful to avoid. Unless we are conscious that we are dealing with a transcendent and Creative Power, how can we expect to demonstrate at all?
We must never lose sight of this Power. The demonstrations, produced through the scientific use of the power of spiritual thought force, are a result of the operation of a law which in no way is limited to any present condition. Evolution itself proves this to be self-evident. The one seeking to use this power must have some sense, some inward conviction that he or she is dealing with an originative, creative law.
Why these things are so no one knows, but experience has repeatedly proven that we can deal with a law which is unconditioned by anything except our unbelief, so there need be no question in anyone’s mind. It is never a question as to whether the law is able or willing.
The law is both able and willing, and we might say that the only limitations it imposes upon us are these: the law cannot do anything which contradicts the divine nature or the orderly system through which this divine nature functions. It must always be true to itself. The law cannot give us anything we cannot mentally and spiritually digest. In these two propositions we find the only limitations imposed upon us by the creative law.
But these are not limitations at all, for we do not wish anything contrary to the divine nature, nor can we expect either Spirit or the law to make us a gift we do not accept. We are certain that the Divine Nature is one of goodness, truth, beauty, reason, love, kindliness, sympathy, understanding, and responsiveness. We feel our own natures to be like unto It, the same in essence, though of course not the same in degree.
There is really, then, no limitation outside our own ignorance, and since we all can conceive a greater good than we have so far experienced, we all have within our own minds the ability to transcend previous experiences and rise triumphant over them, but we shall never triumph over them while we persist in going through the same old mental reactions. There is something positive about a good mental treatment, something almost arbitrary, something relentless, unquestioning.
How can there be an acceptance of a greater good unless its spiritual significance rises through our mental equivalents to reach the level of that good? If we are still submerged in doubt and fear, in uncertainty and dread, shall not these monsters need first to be slain before peace and confidence can be gained?
The End