THE LAWS OF MIND

Every one who takes up the study of the laws of mind will find that many of his life long views and ideas must give place to the truths we find in the new dispensation.

A willingness to give up the false way is in the highest degree essential to one who takes up the study with honest, sincere desire to grasp an understanding of Spiritual principles.

To read with honesty, openness and a sincere desire for truth regardless of what the world may say or think, will open ones mind to what otherwise would not appeal to ones judgement at all.

It is universally admitted that former ways of thinking, believing and doing, have always been more or less disappointing, and have not brought the comfort and happiness man has always hungered for.

Each year of a man’s life is an experiment, and every new scheme has its doubtful side. Men go on in life full with fear and uncertainty enough to weaken their efforts to a great extent, all because true principles are not understood and brought to bear upon their undertakings.

Harmony is the law of the universe, and it should be the aim of every man, woman and child to seek a knowledge of the Spiritual laws.

Man was created upright with dominion over all things. So long man maintains a consciousness of his divine nature, he will think and act in line with that divine harmony which gives dominion; otherwise the mortal gains supremacy and he loses his dominion, meaning when he allows the carnal mind to rule he is out of harmony with Divine Law.

We prove by demonstration that knowledge of Spiritual principles will bring harmony out of discord, and give health for sickness and strength for weakness.

By the knowledge and faithful practice of Spiritual principles, life may be made one continual blessing to oneself and every one about us, because the very nature of the law is harmony.

To gain practical knowledge of the principles, one has to be willing to begin at the very beginning of truth based on man’s son ship to God as Mind, Spirit, First Cause, which are all names of God. Man is the offspring of Divine Mind, and the image and likeness of the same; therefore we want to reason all the way in harmony with that statement.

To consider with deliberation what constitutes mind in the perfection we ascribe to God. We are forced to the conclusion that mind is the underlying substance from which emanates every attribute of Divinity, Life, Truth, Love, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Purity; all of which fill the universe and tend continually to good for the children of man.

As man in his essential nature is designed to be and to act perfectly as the image and likeness of God, all imperfect action and being are contrary to God’s design and contrary to God’s will.
We are not to gauge our course of action, nor our beliefs by what we see others do and think, nor depend upon what some one else knows or believe, but aim to know what is true for ourselves, and thus educate the judgement to see clearly how principles work in our lives.

Every one should understand and develop their own powers of mind, which powers are the gift of God to his children, to whom he gave dominion over all the earth.

Without knowledge of this divine power we are in bondage to ignorance; with it we are made free, and we then have the mind that was in Christ, and can do the works he did.

Truth is a great working principle, without which there can be no harmony, and we find an understanding of its working qualities essential in using it, else Christ would never have made the knowledge of truth necessary to freedom.

The lack of faith in what truth will do for us has always stood like an impenetrable cloud of darkness between the conscious mind of man, and the good things he desires.

We are not required to exercise blind faith in what we can not understand, but our faith should be based in philosophical reasoning, based upon the premise that God is the Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence Spirit. As God is Mind and man is the image and likeness of God, man is also mind in his essential nature, and he possesses the attributes of God consciously in proportion as he recognises and acknowledges them and lives in harmony with Divine law. To understand is to be able to give a reason for the hope within us.

Man was given dominion over all flesh in the beginning, and still retains it, provided he lives in accord with the principles of truth.

Harmony is the law of the universe. Harmony in the earth-life is Divine law manifest, when true principles are understood and acted upon, perfect harmony of mind and body is the result.


Affirmation

There is one Creator, one God, one Presence. I acknowledge my oneness with It. I cannot be separated from my good, which is ever expanding within the limitless Presence. I let go of the old, and embrace the new. Life is transformed for me by fresh ideas, new activities, greater breadth of vision, and a wider scope of accomplishment. I perceive Reality now.
I am serenely confident on the good Life offers me. I am thankful for my changed outlook. I let go of the past completely in this acceptance of abundant, joyous, creative living, now and always.


Sources of material: Jane W Yarnall (Practical Healing for Mind and Body: 1891) and Ernest Holmes (Science of Mind Magazine Mar 1973).

USING THE POWER OF MIND

Using faith to better advantage in our lives.

Firstly we should begin with the idea that we are One with universal Mind and therefore we are united with Its creative action, which does things to us and for us by doing them through our consciousness. This creative action we think of a Law, or the Power that acts.

Next, we should consider that we are also centers of self-conscious awareness, individualisations of this Mind, with the ability to think, to choose, and to know; and that according to the sum total of all our thoughts we are either attracting good to us or repelling it from us.

Finally, we can change our thinking to be affirmative; and, in so doing, cause the Law, the invisible creative Force, to respond to us in an affirmative rather than in a negative way. Faith itself is an affirmation that good is greater than negative, and it becomes an acceptance of that good.

Let us start to develop and use the first idea: We are already One with the universal Mind, and Its creative Power can do anything. This is the basis of dynamic faith and of all effective prayer; and since prayers have been answered, we may accept that this is certain. It is why Jesus told us that when we pray we are to believe we have what we desire. He implied that there is that can, will, and must react to us. It has no choice other than to react to us, in an affirmative manner if that is the way we think.

That is why it is that when we pray or mediate we must do so in the present tense. We must say or think of our desire as taking place now. Up to the time of Jesus, people believed that God might help them; that there we concessions He might make if people pleased Him, or performed certain rites or ceremonies. Jesus brought a new kind of teaching – today we call it “affirmative thinking”. He talked about a Power that operates on our belief the way we believe it; and that we may see definite results or our belief in our experience.

We find that faith must be an affirmative belief. There is a Power that operates upon our thought the way we think it, and we can use our faith consciously and definitely and intelligently and for specific purposes. When we do, we should expect something to happen, and we are not to deny it in the meantime!

The Law can bring us only as much good as we can mentally accept. This accepting g is an act of our own consciousness; it is an act of faith. There must be an acceptance in our mind, a belief within our own consciousness, a belief that does not deny itself. It is a belief that says, “It is so.

Perhaps we ask for something, or accept something, or affirm something, and then it seems as though we are not going to get it. We must continue to know that we are dealing with a Power that causes the invisible to become visible! We are creating a pattern upon which the creative Power is always acting. This is one of the greatest ideas concerning thought, but we seem to overlook its full and complete meaning.

Second proposition

We are thinking, choosing centers of awareness in this Mind; and according to the sum total of all our thoughts, we are either silently attracting good to us or repelling it from us.

Let us consider certain attitudes of thought that ought to be salutary. For instance, the necessity of having an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude is not a virtue but it also is part of a practical philosophy of daily life. There is no wiser way of living than to remember every morning what Life has given us, and to life up thought in thankfulness for every bounty we possess.

We occasionally need to put ourselves on a strict mental regimen, in which we would we would speak no negative word; refrain from faultfinding or condemnation or anyone or anything.

It is the sum total of our thinking that we need to consider; and in doing this one of the first things to learn is that about ninety percent of out thinking is entirely subconscious – we are not aware of it while it goes on. Our success or failure in life is largely a subconscious process, and of course our happiness or misery is almost entirely so.

Scientific investigation verifies that you and I are talking about a reality. Most of our thought processes are subconscious. Here is where the habit patterns are caught and laid down, even from infancy. It should be our purpose to find out what these thought patterns are; and when they are unhappy, or morbid, or filled with fear, change them in order that the natural, normal flow of Life Itself shall be resumed.

Now we have the basic premises developed to where we can use them, because we know what we are doing, and so we come to the third idea:

We can change our thinking, and by so doing enable the Law, the invisible creative Force, to act for us in an affirmative rather than in a negative way.

Jesus gave us a technique that when we pray we should enter the closet of the self, close the door of the senses, and make known our request. We must affirm the good and forget the negative. When we do this, we should be certain that we accept the answer, and know we are going to receive it.

When we pray we must believe that we have, and we shall have. We actually can change our thinking and permit, the Law to give us freedom.

What more could we ask? What more could anyone receive from Life? To learn how to think constructively is to learn how to prove or demonstrate what is good. We can be renewed and transformed by the renewing of our mind. There is One Mind, God –Mind, and this is the mind of man at the level of his understanding. Divine Intelligence stands ready to pour into our consciousness every idea of good, and an infinite Law within this Intelligence acts upon our acceptance or belief, making it visible in our experience.