THOUGHT

Finally, brethren , whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report… think on these things. Phil 4:8

Thought is the instrument of creative power of Mind and is the cause of word and deed. To think is proof that I am, therefore I think. There cannot be a thought without a thinker. Since thought is used as the basis on which to form conclusions and conclusions to form words and shape our deeds, it is evident that out thoughts and affirmations must be at one with God and His attributes, no matter what appearances may indicate. Thinking is not a cause of growth but a means of growth; the impelling power is in Mind.

All external conditions are the results of our thoughts, beliefs and decisions. The thoughts and beliefs upon which we rely and dwell bring us our experiences of either pleasure or pain, light or shadow. It is our own mental conduct and recognition that makes conditions either pleasant or unpleasant. “Every man shall bear his burden.” Gal. 6:5. Would we externalise love, our thoughts must be filled with love. Would we enjoy harmonious conditions, we must believe in harmony. To the pure in thought all things are pure, and to goodness all things are good.

The time has come when we are ready for a complete change of thought and a deep conviction of Truth. We, as students, must move out of the mists of illusive belief and be thoroughly willing to be established in knowledge and faith. Giving up false concepts opens the way for the incoming of light and truth. The greatest need of humanity is knowledge of Truth with its certainty and unwavering faith in the All as Good; a consciousness or how to find and demonstrate health, happiness, and success; and to realise peace and enjoy rest. Recognition of the ever-present Good is the means by which all this is to be realised and enjoyed.

Divine Science teaches the value of having a basis of truth from which to think and reason. This teaching is a science because it presents an exact knowledge of life. The basis of reasoning in Divine Science is the omnipresence of God. God is omnipresent, the one and only Presence everywhere. Thus we know that everything is within God-Mind. God Mind includes you and me. It includes everything in the perfect harmony of God-Substance, God Intelligence, God-Life, and God-Power. It includes my body within God-Perfection. It includes all times and places, all circumstances, events, plans, and purpose with God.

God the Creator
God, the Creative Action
God, the Creation
God, “All and in all.”

After admitting the omnipresence of God what should we do with it? We should begin at once to put into practice the type of thinking which is harmonious with this Truth. When we study music, we begin practicing at once, and in anything we undertake to learn, we expect to set aside time every day for practice. Just as surely must we put into practice whatever of Truth we have seen, if we wish to see more and more of Truth and to enjoy the experiences of desirable Good. We can realise the good in which we live only by loving acknowledgement of it in our own individual lives and ways. The understanding that Truth heals and makes free from error is of no value unless it be practiced.
Forming new habits of thinking requires practice but is essential. Seeing the truth and the value of the new way of thinking, we are able to persist without discouragement even though conditions do not at once seem transformed. It follows that an essential thing in the beginning of our work is that of changing the basis of thought from observation to Principle. This change of basis, a yield of our varied opinions to the One Changeless and Infinite good, changes all conditions.

Divine Science transfers the attention from the visible to the Invisible and thus gives us a new and correct basis for our thinking. We live in the fullness of Spirit, the Kingdom of Unity. We claim health, power, knowledge, and all good; claim our wholeness complete in infinite Good. As we do this, we enjoy the Good, and have peace and rest. Since the living God is around us, above us, and through us all, we are protected and shielded by the perfect Good at all times.

If we form the perfect idea of divine humanity, perceiving all as One, knowing that there is nothing lacking morally, mentally, or spiritually, we shall manifest power over external conditions and reveal more and more of the Life which we live until we express harmony divine.

There is no standard but God; hence, whatever He is should be our guide for thought, word, and act. We know that He is Life, Love and Power, Knowledge, Health, Perfection, Success, and all that we can conceive to be good. To be free from experiences contrary to this Good we must think in accordance with these inherent attributes. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report… think on these things. Phil 4:8

“And God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. “Gen 1:26. He plants the living soul, a perfect seed, in man and tells him to “dress and keep this seed”; he is to watch and cultivate the right thought for himself. Thinking is the method of cultivation, for by thinking man’s mentality is kept alive to Truth. As he persistently thinks on this declaration, realisation of the true state of things becomes more and clearer to him. Eventually we shall understand that it is a law as fixed as the eternal principle of mathematics, that as men and women think in their hearts (in the depths of their God-Self), so do they become aware of their true possibilities.

Train yourself to think: “I do not judge of what I am by what I feel, but I direct my feelings by what I know I am.” This is scientific; it is knowledge duly arranged. This is the method and the only method by which to control thought and express our highest concept of perfection. Systematically train your thinking in Truth’s way. There is but one Way, one Truth, and one Life; find it and abide in it. Affirm over and over again the eternal principles that Truth reveals. Recognise that these are verities or your own being or Life. Accept this new revelation. Awaken! Listen! Think and speak by its light. Be positive, be firm and unwavering and consciousness of Truth will be your reward. Every hour in the day, yes, every moment be on your guard to admit only perfect good and affirm the love presence in everything.

This is man’s responsibility; let him recognise it faithfully; let him systematically practice thinking of this perfect Being that is the nature of Love, Purity, Peace and Health. Recognise that this is your Being –your Nature.

When you say “I am,” know this “I” of which you speak is immortal. Know that you are an eternal idea in the mind of God; changeless, harmonious, strong in thought and body, loving, living, trusting, resting in the freedom and fullness of perfect Life.

By thoughtfully making the above statements and using them each day for a time, habits of thinking will be formed that will gradually bring a sense of peace. Moment by moment you live and moment by moment you think. Conform every thought to the consciousness of Divine Presence; declare it to the exclusion of all else. Accept the Whole Being, then will your thinking and speaking change. If your thinking is optimistic, constructive, right, and your doing is consistent with it, you will find each day an opportunity for development, for you will be proving that you understand the power of thought.

Source: Divine Science: Its Principle and Practice by Malinda Elliot Crammer and Fannie Brooks James.

SPIRITUAL HEALING

There is too much misunderstanding about spiritual healing and the average person does not grasp its full meaning.

Spiritual mind healing is not vague, mystical, mental performance in which one wraps himself with soberness or ponderosity and call it thinking. Spiritual mind healing is based on the theory that there is an intelligent and creative Power around us and flowing through us; a Power greater than we are but a Power which we can use. At the same time it is a Power that must be consciously used if It is to do anything definite for us. It is like electricity. The universe is full of electrical energy. Machinery is run by this energy, but not a wheel will be turned by it unless it is first properly connected.

Spiritual mind treatment for healing, then deals with a Power greater than we are and a Power right where we are, around and within us. We cannot change this Power. It exists from eternity to eternity. We might liken it to gravitational force on the surface of this Earth, which automatically holds everything in place, but the force of itself does not change the position of things. We have the freedom to walk about in the gravitational field, to change our position in it.

We can stand on our hands or our feet – and gravitational force will never ask, “Are you a Methodist or a Baptist?’ or “Are you educated or uneducated? Are you cultured or crude?’ It holds everything in its place. Gravitational force is intelligent; it is a power greater than we are that operates upon us and through us.

There is in the universe that which we can call infinite Intelligence and a creative Law surrounding all things, which in its original state permeates and penetrates the interspaces of the universe and every object we see.

I guess someone will ask, ‘is that God?’

It is God in the same sense that everything is God. It is God in the same sense that our minds are God. It is God in the same sense that God, as the creative Cause of all things, is in and through everything and surrounds everything.

One of the mistakes we make is to think that if we say, ‘I believe in God, God is Good, God is the only Power there is, God is right where I am,’’ this is a spiritual mind treatment which is a definite and active thing. Treatment is the activity of our consciousness, our awareness, based on a belief in the Divine Presence, used for a specific purpose, and identified with the purpose, place, or thing we wish to help, to change, or to heal.

A spiritual mind treatment must not be confused with meditation. However, meditation is a good preparation treatment or prayer. For instance, we might meditate upon the thought: “God is love, God is life, God is truth, God is beauty, God is power,’ until we feel the presence of life, truth, beauty and power. This increases our awareness of life, love, beauty, and power – and that is good.

But if it is to be a treatment, then there must be added to it:”This life, this truth, this love, this beauty, this power is now consciously active in my affairs,” or “is eliminating from me what does not belong,” or “is establishing in me a poise, a calm, a sense of peace, a sense of belonging, a feeling which is free from fear.” In this manner we are passing from the contemplation of the meaning of words, the meditating upon that meaning – all of which is good and essential – to the active application of our words to a specific problem.

For a moment let us consider the act of prayer. It is the finite reaching out to the Infinite of help. It may take the form of supplication or active faith according to our state of consciousness. But when the prayer passes from supplication to active faith, what happens to the mind or the thinking or the one engaged in prayer? The change that takes place is from the idea of “God, please do this, “to “Thank You, God, that You are doing this,” or “that this is being done.”

Then we discover that the reaction in the mind of the one praying in this manner is that he accepts his own statement: he passes from hope to faith, to conviction and acceptance. This is called a prayer of affirmation. It is a prayer of acceptance; it is the effective prayer. Whenever one has prayed effectually it has always been because somewhere in the prayer the mind of the one praying has become convinced!

The effective prayer is one that has so much faith that the one praying no longer doubts! It is evident that this must be true because we have to convince either ourselves or God. Now, it stands to reason we cannot tell electricity to be energy; we cannot tell gravitational force to hold things in the places. We can only use the energy and change our position in relation to it. Neither can we tell God anything. As Whittier said: The Lord is God! He needeth not the poor device of man.

It is evident that we cannot argue with the Almighty and tell Him to be good, tell him to be life, to be truth, beauty or power. We may only accept that there is a Power greater than we are and that It is operating this way. We must recognise that people who have prayed with fervour and with faith have had their prayers answered. But they were not answered by a caprice or nature, a whimsical fancy of the Almighty, or by some law which is a law of chance in that it might or might not answer.

Prayers have always been answered because, knowingly or unknowingly, they have complied with the condition Jesus laid down when he said that when you pray believe that you have and you will receive.

Jesus introduced the use of a principle that has been overlooked until the last hundred years; but it now is the foundation of modern metaphysics. What was it Jesus announced? He said, in effect, there is a creative Intelligence surrounding us that operates on our word. Let us add, It operates on our word as gravitational force operates upon an object to hold it where we set it. It operates upon our word as a creative Intelligence operates on a seed that we put into the ground. We do not coerce It, we do not beseech It, we do not supplicate It, we cannot concentrate It; we do not hold thoughts out to influence things, people, or conditions. Instead, It is Principle, acting as a principle, and therefore acting mathematically and impersonally as all principles must.

Someone might ask, “Is this manipulating God? Not at all. This Principle is a law in nature just like other principles. But is it creative. Someone else might ask, “Well, is this merely a mental science? Where is the spiritual value?” The answer to this is: This Principle reacts to us at the level of our action in It. What It doe for us, It must do through us at the level of our conviction, belief and thought. If this Power seems to have reacted chaotically it is because consciousness has been chaotic. Therefore, the spiritual quality of a treatment or prayer is of vital importance. We must not only be aware of the Power, we must tune the mind to a spiritual realisation of Life – the embodiment of beauty, of love, of tenderness, of kindness, of compassion, of goodness, and of faith.

It is impossible, then, to divorce the spiritual consciousness from prayer or treatment. The primary step in spiritual mind treatment is an awareness of God. The person who gets the best results is the one who has the most conviction of the Divine Presence, and the deepest consciousness of spiritual harmony.

The treatment must embody that inspiration, that feeling which comes alone from the Source of all life. The treatments must touch the seamless robe of unity and wholeness with conviction and feeling. The higher the spiritual awareness, the more Power will flow through it.

There is a part of us that dwells eternally with the most High. We cannot divorce spiritual aspiration, spiritual realisation, or meditation from a scientific technique. It is still necessary to use the technique. Therefore, at any given moment, if we watch ourselves carefully, we will see that the effectiveness of our treatment will depend on how much of an embodiment there was of love, of compassion, of life, of what I choose to call the abandonment of the mind and the soul to the Spirit. This is not something chaotic. It is something actual and real. It is the acceptance of the availability of the Power greater than we are.

Therefore, say to yourself, quietly and with deep conviction: I am now waiting upon the Spirit within me. I believe that I am so close to It that It can reach out through me and govern my life in harmony an in peace. I believe It can be a blessing to myself and to others. I am lifting up my mind, in faith to the conviction that the Spirit of God within me is my real Self. I am inviting this Spirit to enter my mind, to direct my thoughts and my acts, and I am expecting It to do this.

Believing that I am an individual in God and a Divine person in my own right, I am inviting new circumstances and situations into my experience and I am waiting on the Divine Presence within me to make Itself known, to reveal Itself to every person I meet and every situation I contact, to bring life, joy, and happiness to everyone, And so it is. End

Source: Ernest Holmes : Science of Mind

THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES

5. Spiritual Substance

That which is held in mind comes into form. The more that we hold in mind the beauty, the permeating essence, and the infinity of Substance, the more does its perfection come into perfect form for us.

Therefore, it is most important to learn to establish the realisation of the basic divine ideas rather than to use the limited intellectual concepts of manifest man’s habits of thought.

Paul taught us that Substance is Omnipresence. That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him though he be not far from every one of us; For in him we live, move, and have our being…Acts 17:27-28.

In this invisible sea of Substance, man is always near, within and all around him. It must make us aware of our divine nature to realise this Truth.

In the 139th Psalm, we have another lesson on the invisible, limitless Substance, out of which all things are formed. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works; and that your soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the earth.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. – Psalms 139; 14-16.

These verses of the Psalm point out the invisible waiting Substance in which the perfect pattern of the One Mind inheres. All is contained in the limitless, spiritual Substance. It is formless and comes into form according to the habitual thinking and feeling and visioning of man.

When we accept the idea of Substance as Omnipresence, we know that there is nothing to fear; that there is no lack, in reality; that we need not be anxious, weak, ill, or poor, or lonely. We know that consistent holding to the ideal brings forth ideal results. Substance is moulded by our thought fingers. However, as we continue our study of Truth principles, we realise more and more that we, as humans, have no right to manipulate people or conditions.

We learn that the quality of creative goodness always responds to our vision of Truth, and so we place our effort on the envisioning of the divine attributes and our oneness with Spirit. Expectancy of good brings the Substance into form as needed. That is the glory and the wonder of the basic creative activity.

Bread is the symbol of Substance. In the Lord’s Prayer, in the feeding of the multitudes when Jesus broke the bread available to have it increase to sufficiency, and in the Last Supper when He asked the disciples to partake of bread naming it “my body”, we are shown the truth that Substance is the reality out of which all things are formed.

Form, however, does not refer to material objects only. We must remember that man is a threefold being, Spirit, soul and body. Each aspects of his being must be nourished and sustained so that he may express and manifest the divine ideal. Therefore, within Substance are the ideas needed for the orderly, subtle qualities of harmony, of envisioning, of power; within Substance, are the qualities of life and strength, of vitality, and beauty; within Substance are the component elements that make for prosperity, for abundance of supply, for achievement, and security.

Man’s soul is fed through his acceptance of Spiritual Substance as the living reality within him, and thus he gives more room to Spirit, the eternal identity of his being. Spirit never changes. It rests with man to expand his consciousness of the Presence, in order to permit more and more of the divine essence to come forth.

And so we understand that we include, in the Divine Attributes, the infinity and the all-ness of God. So we include Omniscience as the all-knowing Wisdom that God is. We include Omnipotence as the only Power, the One Power in the creation, and we understand that Omnipresence is God. There is no place outside of God. God, the One Mind, Spirit, permeates the whole creation as Omnipresence.

Now it rests with the individual to make these attributes living realities through study, quite meditation and prayer. When we give our earnest attention, Spirit fulfils.


End




Source: Faith and Works by Helen Zagat