This Thing Called You, Chapter 13

This Thing Called You, Chapter 13

You know that Life cannot withhold Itself from you. All that Life is and has is fully given to you to enjoy. The Life of God is perfect and eternal. It is the essence of everything that is. Life is God’s gift to you. It is always ready to manifest Itself through you in Its entire fullness.

You are a self-choosing mind in a Divinity which permeates everything. You are always in the midst of Life, a Life that lives eternally and lives through you now. Therefore, you need not be disturbed by the passage of time, the movement around you, nor the variations of experience through which you go. There is something within you that remains unmovable, that always speaks directly to you, saying, “Be still and know that I am God.” Say:

Consciously, I draw upon the Life that is mine.

I know that the fullness of Life, which is Divine in Its origin, eternal in Its presence, and forever available, is mine.

The Life of the eternal Spirit is my life.

The infinite riches of Its being are mine to enjoy.

The vitality, the wisdom and the peace of God are mine.

I accept them in fullness, in joy and in peace.

You are part of the Universal Mind, one with the Universal Substance. You live, move and have your being in pure Spirit. All the wealth, the power and the goodness of this Spirit exist at the center of your being. You experience this good in such degree as you accept, believe in and feel it.

Since the only life you can have is the Life of the Spirit within you, you need but permit Its radiance to flow through your thought into self-expression. You are surrounded by a dynamic force, a great surge of living power. You are immersed in and saturated with the vital essence of Life. Its presence permeates everything, binding all together in one complete whole.

As you enter into life, feeling the Divine Presence in everything, more and more you will hear a Song of Joy singing at the center of your being. You have only to be still and listen to this Song of Life, for it is always there. Say:

Knowing that the loving Presence is always closer to me than my very breath, I have nothing to fear.

I feel this loving protection around me.

I know that the Song of Joy, of Love and of Peace, is forever chanting its hymn of praise and beauty at the center of my being, therefore, I tune out of my mind all unhappy and negative ideas.

I turn the dial of my thought into the sunshine of life, into brightness and laughter, into the joyous presence of radiant Spirit.

I lay aside all anxiety, all striving, and let the law of Divine Love operate through me into my affairs.

Joyfully I anticipate greater abundance, more success and a deeper peace.

Joy wells up within my mind and Life sings Its song of ecstasy in my heart.

The Chinese sage said that Tao (meaning Spirit) “produces everything, nourishes everything, and maintains everything.” It flows through and is in all things, being all that is. There is nothing outside It. There is a spiritual Presence pervading the universe, welling up in your consciousness, always proclaiming Itself to be the source of your being. The enlightened ones of the ages have told you that your recognition of Life is God within you recognizing Himself in everything you do.

There is but one Presence in the universe. Since It is in and through everything, It must be in and through you. This Presence manifests Itself in and through all forms, all people, all conditions. This Presence is Life Itself. Its nature is love and givingness.

Negation may be an experience and a fact, it can never be an ultimate truth. Life cannot operate against itself. Always the negative is overcome by the positive. Good cannot fail to overcome evil. The meek alone shall inherit the earth. Finally, it will obliterate everything unlike itself, even as the sun dissolves the mist. Say:

I refuse to contemplate evil as a power.

I know that it will flee from me; it dissolves and disappears in the light of love.

I know that hate cannot exist where love is recognized.

I turn the searchlight of Truth upon every apparent evil in my experience.

This light dissolves every image of evil.

The manifestation of good is complete.

Love makes the way clear before me.

I am guided into an ever-widening experience of living.

My every thought and act is an expression of the goodness which flows from Life.

The Divine circulates through me automatically, freely.

Every atom of my being is animated by Its action.

I know that at all times I have a silent, invisible Partner walking with me, talking with me, operating through me.

Continuously, I keep my mind open to Its guidance, to Its inspiration and illumination.

You are either attracting or repelling according to your mental attitudes. You are either identifying yourself with lack or with abundance, with love and friendship or with indifference. You cannot keep from attracting into your experience that which corresponds to the sum total of your states of consciousness. This law of attraction and repulsion works automatically. It is like the law of reflection—the reflection corresponds to the image held before a mirror. Life is a mirror peopled with the forms of your own acceptance.

How careful, then, you should be to guard your thoughts, not only seeing to it that you keep them free from doubt and fear—accepting only the good—but, equally, you should consciously repel every thought which denies that good.

Knowing that the Law of Mind works automatically upon your thought, or that your thought works upon It, you may free yourself from the sense of personal responsibility, while, at the same time, remaining aware that even spiritual laws must be definitely used if they are to produce tangible results in your experience. Say:

I believe, with absolute conviction, that my word will not return unto me void.

I know that spiritual laws execute themselves just as do all other laws of nature.

I know that my word penetrates any unbelief in my mind, casts out fear, removes doubt, clears away obstacles, permitting that which is enduring, perfect and true to be realized.

I have complete faith and acceptance that all the statements I make will be carried out as I have believed.

I do everything with a sense of reliance upon the Law of Good, therefore, I know that my word shall not return unto me void.

I accept this word and rejoice in it.

I expect complete and perfect results from it.

I relax and let a Power greater than myself work for me, in me and through me.

There is a God Power at the center of every man’s being, a Presence that knows neither lack, limitation nor fear, sickness, disquiet nor imperfection. This Presence and Power is at the center of all people and all things. But because everyone is an individual, he can build a wall of negative thought between himself and this perfection. This makes it difficult for the true center to come to the surface.

When this happens the mind becomes impressed only by its external environment, which declares that impoverishment and pain must necessarily accompany every man in his experience through life. This whole process is an activity of thought, either consciously or unconsciously entertained. The wall which keeps you from the greater good is built of mental blocks, cemented together by fear and unbelief, mixed in the mortar of negative experience.

Now you are to tear down this wall, to completely destroy it. The view which this wall obstructed is now seen in all its grandeur. The sun never really stopped shining and the River of Life forever flows. Having destroyed the barrier, you may sit on the banks of this river contemplating the beauty of nature, or you may bathe in its refreshing coolness.

Every man’s experience is an attempt to merge his own being with this eternal river, not to the loss of his identity, but to the discovery of that self which has never wholly left its heaven. Like an echo from some unknown shore there is a voice seeking to be heard. Like clouds which obscure the mountain tops of vision, thoughts of fear and doubt obstruct the greater view. Say:

I know that there is a Presence and a perfect Law irresistibly drawing into my experience everything which makes life happy and worth while.

I know that friendship, love and happiness belong to me.

Nothing but good can go forth from me.

The good that I receive is but the completion of a circle, the fulfillment of my desire for all.

I no longer judge according to appearances, be they mental or physical.

I have placed my reliance in the Power, the Presence and the Perfection of God.

Therefore, I have dominion over all apparent evil.

I repudiate all its claims, cast out every fear of or belief in that which is not good, and exercise the dominion which by divine right belongs to me.

I know that freedom and joy are mine today. This freedom and joy spontaneously express themselves in my experience.

There is nothing in me that can obstruct their passage.

I permit them to flow through me in all their wonder and might.

I am conscious of an Infinite Wisdom directing me. Whatever I ought to know I shall know.

Whatever I ought to do I shall do.

Whatever belongs to me will come to me.

I am compelled to recognize my good, to understand and accept it, and to act upon it.

Therefore, I declare that every step of my way is guided and guarded.

With joy I enter into the fulfillment of life.

This Thing called You, Chapter 13,

Ernest Holmes

This Thing Called You, Chapter 12

This Thing Called You, Chapter 12

God within you knows by pure intuition; that is, without process of reasoning with reference to external facts or existing conditions. If God were to know in any other way He would be finite. This is why it is said that God is omniscient or all-knowing. Such omniscience or all-knowingness exists at the very center of your being. Therefore, Divine Guidance exists at the center of your being, acting as a principle in nature.

If you are living in an Intelligence which instantly knows the answer to any problem, then you are living in an Intelligence which has no problem. You are, therefore, bringing your problem to a Principle which has no problem, just as electricity, or mathematics, or the law of gravitation has no problem. Hold up an object heavier than the air and let go of it and the law of gravitation will bring it to the earth. It would be a problem if you had to force this object to the earth. It is no problem to the law which works automatically. You let go of the object and the rest is automatic. So it is with the use of other principles in nature. So it is with Divine Guidance.

Common sense will tell you that Divine Guidance cannot exist for a few persons. It cannot exist because of any particular religious belief or because of a dogmatic acceptance of any creed. Divine Guidance must exist for you and for everyone, or not at all—just as electricity exists for everyone.

Divine Guidance, like the Presence of God, is where you are, at the center of your being. When you turn to the Spirit for the solution of your problem, Spirit answers by intuitively knowing, not the problem, but its answer. If you have a problem of confusion and wish to gain peace, this could not be done by asking God to be peace, for God is peace. Your answer would come as you turn from the confusion to the contemplation of peace. You cannot join confusion with peace. You must forget the one if you would unify with the other. Say:

Knowing that the Law of God is perfect, I lay aside all fear, uncertainty or doubt.

There is no burden whatsoever in my consciousness.

I live in the Kingdom of Heaven now.

I rejoice in the Divine Presence.

I bathe in the sunlight of eternal Truth.

I consciously enter into the benediction of Peace.

As your consciousness lifts itself above the problem into a spiritual atmosphere of affirmation, the problem, as such, disappears and the answer takes its place. Every problem contains its own answer if you think of the problem merely as a question, an inquiry, and not as an obstruction. Thinking of it this way, keep your mind not on the repetition of thoughts about the problem, but on the receipt of a definite answer.

Work with your consciousness until it ceases to function on the level of problem and begins to function on the level of answer. It is mathematically certain that your problem will be solved if you do this. You may not find this the easiest thing in the world to do, but even though it may be difficult at times, you must never permit yourself to become discouraged. The reward is certain.

Remember, you are not presenting God with the problem. God has no problem. Principles have no problems. God knows intuitively and the principle of Divine Guidance works automatically on your acceptance. Therefore, when you bring your hopes and aspirations to the Divine Center within you, lay them on the altar of your faith in complete confidence. Say:

The Spirit within me knows the answer to any problem which confronts me.

I now turn from the problem to the Spirit, accepting the answer.

I turn from any thought of confusion to a consciousness of peace.

I know that the Spirit of God is within me and the Law of God is around me.

I know that the answer [think of the problem, not as a problem, but merely as a question] is here and now.

It is within my own mind, because God is right where I am.

In calm confidence, in perfect trust, in abiding faith and with complete peace, I let go of the problem as a problem.

I receive the answer as fulfillment.

This is the secret of the answer to prayer. For, no matter what particular religious conviction the one praying may have, in the act of effective prayer he opens his consciousness to a Divine influx. That which is forever pressing against him flows through him, instructs his intellect, deepens his will, and executes its law through his act.

Through Divine intuition consciously enter the upper field of your mind where peace and joy forever exist. Do this humbly, but with a sense of triumph; meekly, but with a consciousness of worthiness—not timidly, as one knocking at a door which may refuse to open, but boldly, as one who knows in Whom he has believed.

You are working with an immutable Law, an unfailing Principle, an ever-available Power. It is as simple as this. The mind that is in you is the Mind of God. It knows nothing about big or little, hard or easy, but what It does for you It must do through you. Hence, you must believe before It can operate for your benefit. Say:

Realizing that the Divine Spirit can give me only what I receive, knowing that what the Spirit does for me It must do through me, I now accept the gift of Life.

I permit Infinite Life to flow through me.

I permit Divine Intelligence to act through me, knowing that all the power there is, all the presence there is, and all the life there is, is God, the Living Spirit Almighty.

Identify yourself with the object of your desire. Think of beauty and peace and you will attract peace and beauty. Watch yourself and see if you are believing that any condition or situation, past, present or future, can limit your use of this Divine Law. If you do, you are automatically causing the Law to work through that limiting condition. You are conditioning the Law to your own acceptance. This does not mean that you are limiting the Law. You are merely saying: This is what I except of life. In other words, you are believing that the possibility of your personal experience is already set by your environment. Say:

The Law of good is flowing through me.

I am one with the rhythm of Life.

There is nothing to be afraid of.

There is nothing to be uncertain about.

God is over all, in all and through all.

God is right where I am.

I am at peace with myself.

I am at peace with everyone around me.

I am at peace with the world in which I live.

I am at home with the Divine Spirit in which I am immersed.

Let us think about happiness. Everyone desires to be happy. Everyone strives toward happiness. Too few obtain it. Happiness is not a mental debauch. If one must become intellectually or emotionally intoxicated to be happy, then, like one who has imbibed too much alcohol, he is bound sooner or later to sober up and must again plunge himself into an unnatural state to revive his happiness. Happiness must come from a deeper wellspring of being.

Permanent happiness comes from a quiet contentment and an inner sense of certainty which cannot be shaken by outside conditions, whether good or ill. The mind must reach a place where it no longer remembers the past with anxiety, or looks into the future with uncertainty. If you believe in Divine Goodness, the loving-kindness and givingness of God, if you believe in your own soul as immortal, forever expanding, then no matter what situation confronts you, you can be happy. Say:

I have a calm, inward conviction of my union with good, my oneness with God.

I have a deep realization that I am surrounded by an infinite Law which receives the impress of my thought and acts creatively upon it.

I am conscious of my ability to use this Law, to direct it for specific purposes, for myself and others.

There is nothing in me that can deny, limit, obstruct, divert or in any way hinder my use of this Law. There is no argument, no belief, no superstition, no doubt that can cast any shadow of unbelief across my mind.

I realize that this Law exists and I am conscious that I know how to use It.

It is certain that you will have to love your fellow man if you wish to be happy. Your union with God implies your union with everything that lives. Do not be afraid of this. Do not shun the thought of it. Divine union means union with everything. This does not mean that you love those who are closest to you any less, you merely love all humanity more.

Think for a moment about the few upon whom you have lavished particular affection. Now permit your imagination to include more. Say to yourself: “What would it be like if these few whom I love so much were multiplied so that finally everyone I meet should arouse in me the same deep affection?” Dare to lose your small affection and you will find it increased and multiplied a million times through greater union.

Learn to be at home in the universe. No more loneliness. No more sense of isolation. See God in everyone—the same God with a different face, the same animating Principle with a different form, the same Divine Presence clothed in individual expression. There is a fountain of life, from which, if a man drink, he shall never thirst again. Your search is after this fountain that you may be immersed in it. You cannot plunge into the waters of real Life unless you take everyone else in with you. The universe is one system.

You cannot be happy unless you believe in immortality. You not only have the joy of living today, but an equal joy of knowing that you will live forever. Always your horizons will be expanding, forever filling your life with new hope, new vigor and new assurance.

You are an eternal being now on the pathway of endless unfoldment, never less but always more yourself. Life is not static. It is forever dynamic, forever creating—not something done and finished, but something alive, awake and aware. There is something within you that sings the song of eternity. Listen to it. There is an eternal springtime of your soul. Always rising but never setting is the sun of your destiny.

Commune with the invisible Presence within you until there comes a certainty which is beyond hope, something which enables you to see clear-eyed the future as you see the past. God grant that you shall enter into this freedom today. Say:

I refuse to worry about anything.

I have complete confidence that the God Who is always with me is able and willing to direct everything I do, to control my affairs, to lead me into the pathway of peace and happiness.

I free myself from every sense of condemnation, either against myself or others.

I loose every sense of animosity.

I now understand that there is a Principle and a Presence in every person gradually drawing him into the Kingdom of Good.

I know that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and I am resolved to enter into this Kingdom, to possess it, and to let it possess me.

You have a silent partner within you whose energy is inexhaustible and whose intelligence is without limit. Your silent partner is more than a subjective or unconscious reaction to life, it is Life Itself.

You must find and maintain a close communion with your true Center. Your creative power is not an act of the will. It is, rather, an act of your willingness to believe. And you are believing in something greater than your objective self, something deeper than your subconscious self, something beyond the collective thought of the world. Your creative power comes from the originating Spirit Itself, which knows no limit, is conditioned by no circumstance and governed by no law outside Itself.

Throw yourself with complete abandon into the all-consuming fire of inward conviction. Say:

I know that the Divine Spirit is operating through me now.

I know that I am not limited by anything that has happened, or by anything that is now happening.

I am entering into an entirely new set of conditions and circumstances.

That which has no limit is flowing through my consciousness into action.

I am guided by the same Intelligence and inspired by the same Imagination which scatters the moonbeams across the waves, and holds the forces of nature in Its grasp.

Try to feel such a close union with this invisible Presence that It becomes to you as an infinite Person—not a person separated from you, but the Person operating through you.

Unity does not mean uniformity. Therefore, you know that God is always acting in you in a unique way, in an original manner. Try to feel that every day something new and wonderful is going to happen to you. Say:

I am conscious that the Divine Spirit is acting through me.

I am aware that the Truth is making me free from any belief in want, lack or limitation.

There is no doubt or uncertainty in my mind.

I have a feeling of security and of ability to do anything that I should do.

I am not afraid of life or death, for I know that death is swallowed up in life.

I know that every living soul will find complete emancipation sooner or later.

Therefore, I stand “amidst the eternal ways” and let the winds of God blow full and free around me.

You have just as much evidence of the existence of your soul as you do of the existence of an atom. While it is true that no one has ever seen this soul, it is also true that no one has ever seen love, beauty or intelligence. You have an invisible body right now. You are as immortal now as you ever will become, and you should begin to live like an immortal being.

The soul is the one triumphant, indestructible and unconquerable thing you possess. Shot from the Invisible into this experience, it constitutes your great reality. But why wait for physical death to enjoy and experience your immortal being? Do not prepare to die. Prepare to live, whether you are ten years old or one hundred. There is no death. It is impossible for you to die. Stop trying to die and learn to live.

Each autumn brings its harvest, yet it never leaves you with a thought of finality. There will always be a new planting, new blossoms and new fruits, new seed times and new harvests. It makes no difference what your harvest may have been last year, today you can create a new future if you have the faith to believe that you can. Plant, then, new hopes and aspirations. The Lord of the harvest will permit you to reap what you have sown.

This Thing called You, Chapter 12,

Ernest Holmes

This Thing Called You, Chapter 11

This Thing Called You, Chapter 11

You use the same power to drive your automobile forward, or, in reverse, to move it backward. The energy is not good when it moves you forward nor evil when it moves you backward. You must eliminate the idea of good and evil as entities opposing each other and realize that there is but one Life Principle. There is but one electric energy wherever it may be used, but one creative Spirit wherever It is perceived, but one spiritual Power wherever It is understood.

Like the ethers of space, the creative Principle of Life is ever present. Being everywhere present, It must be present in you. Hence, It must be available at the center of your being.

That which defeats you when you use It in a limited way, gives you victory when you change your attitude toward It, permitting It to flow through you in a more extensive manner. Always It responds by corresponding to your mental attitudes. 

You are never limited by the Principle of your being. Limitation is a result of a limited use of this Principle. You can come to but one conclusion: there is something which honors your belief, not in a big way in one place and in a little way in another; rather, it honors your belief as you believe it.

This Principle must be without limit. Your thought and acceptance can put brakes on it. In this way, paradoxical as it sounds, you limit the Limitless. Of course, you really do not limit It, but you do limit Its flow in your own experience.

Why is it that you do not instantly heal if the Principle with which you deal is limitless, unless it is that your use of this Principle is limited? Surely, it is within the province of the Divine easily to dissolve a cancer or a state of poverty. Surely, the miracle of faith can take place in your experience. Do you really expect the signs following your belief? You seem to when you pray, you feel you are using the right words, but are you sure that your prayers or affirmations are made with complete acceptance? It is not the form of the treatment which you give, or the prayer which you make, that gives it power. Rather, it is your faith. 

Suppose you wish to help a lonely person. Explain to him that God is present in everyone, that there is but One Person in Whom he lives, moves and has his being. Tell him that all people are in this One Person, that each is an individualized center of Spirit. He is already one with everyone else through the Spirit of all. Teach him how to see this One in all.

You can follow a very simple practice for him. This takes place in your own consciousness. Since it is difficult for him to identify himself with good, because he is immersed in a sense of isolation, spiritually you are going to take him by the hand until he learns to walk by himself.

Remember, a spiritual mind treatment is a series of statements for yourself or for someone you wish to help. You begin your treatment by realizing the Divine Presence which includes everything and everyone; by knowing that since God is over all, in all and through all, God is in this person.

He thinks he is alone in the world. You know that he is one with all people. This unity of life is forever established. There is no real isolation, no real disunion, only an apparent one. His thought of loneliness and isolation holds people away from him. Clear this thought and the One in all people rushes out, in a sense, to meet Itself. You are working with an immutable Principle and when the thought is changed, the demonstration will be made. He will find himself surrounded with friendship, love and appreciation.

That which is definite and clear in your own consciousness becomes a part of his consciousness and begins to work automatically for him. In the long run, he must learn to think for himself. You are merely helping him over a rough spot. You are doing this gladly, lovingly. He hopes that what you are thinking is true. He hopes for results. You expect them. He would like to believe. You must know. What he waits for, you accept. What he thinks may happen in the future, you know is happening right now. Your statements are always affirmations of the present, not the future.

Cultivating your own thought, living in continuous expectancy and affirmation, knowing the truth in season and out of season, you are doing your part. The Law will never fail you. Your problem is to convert your own thinking. You do this through words, audibly or inaudibly expressed; through thoughts, ideas, beliefs, prayer (which is silent communion with the Invisible), realization, meditation, whatever you choose to call the process.

Words are molds into which the creative substance of your consciousness flows. Words without meaning, while they may have some effect through constant repetition, cannot have the same effect that words with meaning have. Your words will have meaning in such degree as you actually feel that they are the activity of the Spirit within you.

Jesus told a paralyzed man to get up and walk. His words were simple enough. You, too, can say, “Arise! Take up thy bed and walk.” But what would happen if you were to say these words? Would your inner consciousness rise in complete conviction? Or would there be some reservation in your thought, some belief that perhaps the man would not actually pick up his bed and carry it home?

Here is a fine point in using the Power within you. You must develop a spiritual awareness which is transcendent, which knows that it is as easy for the Truth to say, “Get up and walk,” as it is for a tired man to say, “Lie down and rest.”

This calls for faith and understanding—a complete conviction that God is right where you are, that Life is speaking through you, and that the Law of Life is obeying your will. Words without this awareness have no power. Spiritual awareness is the healing agency loosed through your word. While it is true that thoughts are things, they are things in your experience only in such degree as your inward consciousness pours the fire of conviction into the form of your intellectual affirmation.

The authority for your words is in your works. The only authority you have for your belief is the authority of what that belief accomplishes. Jesus would have left no lasting mark on history if he had not proved what he believed. When he said, “Peace,” there was peace. When he said to the wind and the wave, “Be still!” the wind and the wave were stilled. When he told the paralyzed man to get up and walk, the man got up and walked.

Naturally, you may exclaim, “Well, I am not Jesus!” Fortunately, you are not. You are yourself. This is the most wonderful thing about you. You are someone in your own right. You have access to the same Power he used. The God who is ever with you is the same Spirit with Whom he communed. There are not two spirits or two powers, there are not two divine presences or two universal laws of mind. There are not two laws of gravitation or two principles of mathematics. Nothing has happened to Reality since Jesus walked the shores of Galilee and ministered to the multitudes who so eagerly followed him. The Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus was always talking about is also your kingdom. The Spirit which was within him is in everyone, equally available, giving of Itself alike to every age.

It is neither the Power, the Presence, nor the Law that you lack, if you do lack anything. It is a consciousness, an inner spiritual awareness. This consciousness is a thing of thought and conviction. It is a thing of faith and understanding. No one can give this to you but yourself, and if you have it no one can take it away from you.

Analyze what must have happened in the consciousness of Jesus when he healed the man blind from birth. The people around him said that either this man must have sinned in some previous incarnation or he must be suffering from the sins of his forefathers. So they asked Jesus if this man did sin, or his forefathers, that he was born blind. Jesus was confronted with this proposition: if reincarnation were true, this man was suffering from past mistakes; if the Mosaic law were true, the sins of his parents were visited on him.

You can imagine how the mind of Jesus must have worked. He knew that the Truth could set this man free. He knew that God already was incarnated in him and did not need to reincarnate. He knew that the Spirit of this man had never been born and could never die. Jesus wiped out the belief in all previous sins or mistakes through his awareness of the God Who is ever present, Whose vision never fails, and Whose all-seeing eye has never dimmed.

The anguish of condemnation, the dogma of false beliefs were entirely dissolved. He knew that this man was one with the Eternal Mind. Therefore, he knew that as this man turned from his consciousness of sin and mistake he was made free. All previous liabilities were wiped out. Every wrong act was corrected.

This same understanding is available to you. This same compassion is yours today. This same divine realization waits your recognition of its beneficent action for you. You are one with the God Who is right where you are.

When you give a spiritual mind treatment you are focusing a power and giving conscious direction to something which has accumulated within you through continual recognition. The peace your intellect affirms must be backed by a consciousness generated through perhaps repeated and laborious effort. The reward is worthy of the endeavor. If at all times you are seeking inwardly to be aware of the Divine Presence, you will find it easier and easier to direct the Law of Life for definite purposes. Say:

I know there is an inner Presence in everything.

I know that this Presence responds to me.

I know that everyone is an incarnation of God, that the living Spirit breathes through all.

I recognize this Spirit and It responds to me. I realize that everything is alive, awake and aware with Spirit.

I commune with this Divine Presence.

The Spirit within me reaches out and communes with the Spirit in everything and everyone I contact.

It is the same Spirit in all, over all, and through all.

This Thing called You, Chapter 11,

Ernest Holmes

This Thing Called You, Chapter 10

This Thing Called You, Chapter 10

Who loses his life shall find it.” Since the whole teaching of Jesus was that God is Life, he could not have meant that you should actually lose your life, but that you should let go of the lesser in order to experience the greater. This is not a bad bargain. If you lose a sense of unhappiness you will become happy. If you lose a sense of confusion you will be at peace. If you could become consciously and subjectively aware, even for one moment, of your true spiritual perfection, there would come such a conversion of your mind as instantly to heal your physical body.

This is not the easiest thing to do. When you are in pain it is difficult to affirm peace. When you are in want it is hard to affirm abundance. But this is the true meaning of losing your life. What you lose is a false sense of being. You are trading the unreal for the real, the false for the true. If you wish to be happy, take all unhappiness out of your mind and bury it. If you want God, stop thinking about the devil. If you wish to live in the kingdom of heaven, forget hell.

You are to find the roots of your life in pure Spirit, to see the basic unity of all—the fundamental, mathematical and logical necessity of such a unity. Lose your sense of being separated from your good and you will find that you are united with it.

This is the secret you have with the God who is ever with you. He already knows what you are trying to find out. The next time any obstacle appears on your path, try to realize that it is not an entity, person or self-created condition. It is not true to the larger life within you. Satisfy your mind that it is not a thing in itself. Cease fighting it and begin to realize its opposite. Know there are no obstructions in Spirit and that you already are Spirit. Begin to identify yourself with the Truth which knows no obstruction. Begin to claim your divine inheritance.

When everyone believed the world to be flat they did not flatten the round world. When one man made up his mind that the world was really round, he did not resist the flat world because he knew there was no such world. He set out to sail around the world he knew to be round. Through his act of faith he discovered the truth about the round world. The fear and superstition of others did not deter him. The accumulated experience of the race could not bind him. The belief that the unknown oceans were filled with monsters did not frighten him. He knew the world was round and that he could sail around it.

You have discovered the spiritual universe. Many others have discovered this same world, but each must make the discovery for himself. You are going to have a lot of joy sailing around this world of yours. Don’t fight the opinions of others, or waste your time arguing over these things. Follow the inward gleam of your consciousness and you will arrive.

Whatever you identify yourself with you will become like. Whatever you resist until you make it a reality, you will also become like. Therefore, “…resist not evil and it will flee from you.” Don’t fight your fears, see through them. There is nothing in God’s world to be afraid of. 

Jesus spent little time in negative thought—only enough to see through it, to reverse the false sense of life with a true realization of man’s union with God. This glorious figure, like a shaft of light, shot across the bewildered consciousness of man, proving every claim he made, leaving behind him a breath of heaven, fragrant with love. As he identified himself with the Source of his being, so you must identify yourself with that Spirit which is ever with you.

Remember the little boy who brought a few loaves and fishes, all the food there was in that vast multitude crying out for bread. The disciples of Jesus identified the possibility of being fed only with the meagre amount in the boy’s pocket. Jesus identified the loaves and fishes with Eternal Substance, forever flowing, manna from heaven. Does not the boy symbolize a childlike faith and expectancy, the vision so newly born from the Kingdom of God? Can you not imagine his countenance shining with joy, his eyes glistening with inward vision? Can you not imagine his enthusiasm as he passed his small offering into the hands of love which multiplied his idea through God’s law of abundance?

Jesus and the little boy had faith, the childlike consciousness which had not been caught in the prison walls of experience—the little boy, and the man who had grown to full spiritual stature. Giving thanks, the bread was broken, the loaves were multiplied, the fish were distributed, the multitude was fed.

Nothing has happened to Reality since that little boy brought the loaves and fishes to Jesus. God has not changed, nature has not changed, law has not changed, truth has not changed. Where shall you look for this man and this little boy, for the loaves and fishes? Jesus took the multitude out in the desert. There was no food there, no bakeries. It was far from the shores where fish were caught. Shall you not also look to the desert place of your own thought where it seems most unlikely that you will find substance?

Perhaps the little boy is still standing there with outstretched hands and glistening eyes. Perhaps you are that boy. The man is there also—the man of Divine Wisdom, the God-intended man. Let the little boy hand the few loaves and fishes to this Divine Man within you, while the intellect gives thanks and the Spirit performs its miracle of love.

Your search is after something great enough to lose your littleness in, something within you worthy of immortality and eternal expansion. The world has not looked for God where He may be found. Here is the great secret. There is only one God, one Divine Mind. This One is undivided, hence all of It is present everywhere.

God is not only where you are, He is what you are. In a sense, you might say, “Since God is all there is, the only Presence there is, and since the Spirit is manifest through everything, then everything I see is a manifestation of God. That within me which enables me to see, know and understand this, also is God. Since God does not go in search after Himself, I need no longer go in search after Him. Rather, I shall now live and think from the union which I already have.

Your endeavor is not to locate the Divine Presence or awaken the activity of the Law. It is, rather, to become aware of this Presence and of Its activity flowing through you.

It will be well to consider the difference between outlining and choosing. As an individual, you have the right to choose. Being an individual, you cannot escape the necessity of choice. You are not an automaton. You are not a mental mechanism. You are not merely an aggregation of mental reactions. You are a person, a divine being in your own right. The Spirit has set the stamp of individuality upon Itself and called it you. What God has done you cannot undo. When you think, it is the Divine Mind in you willing Itself into action, thinking Itself into manifestation, realizing Itself as the object of Its own thought.

You do the choosing, the Law does the outlining. This is the distinction between choice and outline. If you choose to plant a tomato seed you have chosen a tomato plant, but you do not outline how many leaves shall grow on the plant, how many stalks it shall have. That belongs to the Law of cause and effect.

When you say, “I know that the Divine Intelligence is attracting certain conditions to me,” and when you have affirmed your union with good, you can go about the business of everyday life with no sense of anxiety, knowing that the Law is working for you. The Law can only operate on your images of thought since the Law is a doer and not a knower. Therefore, it is up to you to keep these images clear that they may reflect themselves in the Law, which is a mirror. 

You have been told that you should fast and pray. Perhaps true fasting is a determination no longer to entertain negative thoughts, perhaps it means continually to be affirming the good. The act of physical fasting is merely a symbol of this inward grace. The need for the symbol disappears when you understand its meaning. It is a good practice to fast, so far as the negative is concerned, and feast on affirmations only. Why not fast from the idea of lack and feast on the idea of abundance? In no way does this mean that you need withdraw from the world and its activities. You should enter into these activities with a new sense of reality, with a penetrating spiritual vision which sees through the effect to its cause and knows this cause to be good. You will be practicing an uncommon common sense, a spiritual common sense, so rare and so creative that the only man who ever completely tried it was mistaken for God.

It is certain that you must fast from fear if you wish to establish faith. You must fast from confusion if you hope to enter into tranquility. It matters not if your transition from the negative into the affirmative seems slow, if the ascent from your valley of negation to the mountain top of realization seems difficult. Each step will bring you nearer the summit.

There is a Divine awareness within you which will lead you upward and onward. Prepare yourself for the ascent, then, filling your mental life with spiritual realization. Your bread is manna from heaven, your meat the living word, your fruit the inspiration of hope, your wine the essence of joy. 

You should always expect instantaneous and permanent results from your treatments. Unless you expect such results, you cannot attain them, since your denial of such results would be using the Law in reverse. Practice a complete abandonment to faith. This you must do for yourself. No one else can do it for you. If someone else could do this for you, you would not be you, you would be someone else. You cannot live outside yourself and no one can live for you. You alone can be yourself. Every great soul has known this. This is the greatest of all truths, the apex of all summits. 

When you say that your body is spiritual, you are not denying your physical body. The physical is included within, and is part of, the spiritual universe. You do not say, “I have no eyes, or feet, or stomach.” They are part of the spiritual body.

God’s world is not a world of illusion but of realities. Everything that is exists for the purpose of expressing Life. You are able to recognize the things around you because they are in the same Mind in which you live, the one Mind which is everywhere present. This means the Presence in everything—a tree, a rose, everything in nature, your own physical body. Nothing can be excluded from this omnipresence. It was this Presence that Moses communed with by the burning bush, the Divine Flame which surrounded the bush with an aura of light and color. This flame of Divinity penetrates everything.

If the Spirit has seen fit to express Itself through a physical universe and to give you a physical body, it would be absurd to think of this body or environment as an illusion unworthy of your attention. Rather, you should think of them as things of joy. Know that even the physical universe will respond to you when you respond to it.

Stop blaming anyone or anything—persons, circumstances or situations—for what may be happening to you. This is futile. It is a dead-end road. It is a blind alley. It is a raft adrift on an ocean of uncertainty. Today you are going to take your life in your own hands, realizing God is ever with you. You are going to identify yourself with goodness and with joy. Straight thinking is going to do this for you. Straight thinking may not be the easiest thing in the world, but it is possible for anyone.

This Thing called You, Chapter 10,

Ernest Holmes

This Thing Called You, Chapter 9

This Thing Called You, Chapter 9

If you wish to know the truth about your business or your profession, know that it is an activity of good. It is an activity of your partnership with the Infinite. The business of life is to be happy, active and whole; to express the Divine Life with joy and in fulfillment.

Lift the load of personal responsibility by transferring it to the Law of perfect action. No matter what confronts you, what obstructions appear or what undesirable situations exist in your experience, this Law can dissolve them.

This Law knows neither big nor little. It is like nature’s law of gravitation which holds a feather to the surface of the earth and also holds the mountain steadfast. It does not say, “Behold, I am strong in one place and weak in another.” It does not ask you to weigh the mountain or the feather. Throw a small pebble over a cliff and at the same time roll a giant boulder into space—each will find its way to earth. The law of gravitation works automatically on big and little.

So it is with your problems. Don’t think some of them are hard and others easy. Shift the load of those which appear weighted, as well as those which appear light, into the Law of action. Big and little are swallowed up in one comprehensive whole. Who can say that the blossoming of a rose in the desert is of less importance to the Divine Imagination than the building of an empire?

You exist that Divine feeling, fire, imagination and creativity may be expressed through you. The Spirit comes to you with a new and fresh creativity. You need not ask what others have done or how they have done it. Be yourself and express life as you find it. Never imitate. Trust the self. Find the self in God and God in the self.

Thought has a cumulative power. If you daily say to yourself that your word uproots and casts out every thought of fear or uncertainty, it will surely do so.

There is a pattern of perfection at the center of your being which has never been touched by disease or misfortune. Your intellect senses this through intuition, your imagination feels it by divine right, your inward consciousness knows it through faith. What you are trying to do is to awaken your whole being to spiritual awareness.

It is the intellect and the subconscious self which need renewing. The Spirit neither sleeps nor slumbers. The Spirit is God. Any maladjustments in your life will be healed when you realize this perfect center within yourself. The vision you must catch and hold is the consciousness of a union so complete and perfect that you find no difference between your own being and God. The two are one.

What thought has planted, thought can uproot. The conditions laid down by mental attitudes, whether or not you are conscious of them, can be changed. If you are experiencing some condition which is unhappy, you must know there is nothing in you that attracts this condition, nothing in you that holds it in place, nothing in you that believes it must be this way. Turn your mind entirely from the condition and think in an exactly opposite manner.

In actual practice, you reverse the old thought patterns by definitely knowing that they can no longer operate through you. This is more than a theory. Thoughts of peace will reverse thoughts of confusion. A consciousness of faith will reverse fear. It is now known that fear and discouragement, the feeling of unworthiness and inferiority, as well as a sense of uncertainty about one’s relationship to God, probably start with an unconscious sense of rejection. Out of this comes the sense of uncertainty, fear of the future, the anxiety complex, the insecurity attitude, the feeling of not being wanted, the sense of guilt.

These thought patterns are more or less laid down in every man’s life. Your business is not to bother about where they came from but to know how to get rid of them.

The Spirit is neither sad nor depressed. If you would catch the vision of the joy which should be yours, you must dry your tears, you must lay aside your fears, you must think from the inspirational center within you which is nothing less than the Divine in you singing Its song of life.

The wick of your individual life runs deep into the oil of pure Being. There is but One Life and that Life is your life now. No matter what confusion appears at the surface of your life, there is always a place of calm at the center of your being. No matter how turbulent the waves may be on the ocean of your experience, beneath there is a changeless peace. Your being is submerged but not lost in the Infinite.

When you become confused, stop and listen to your inner calm. Turn from the confusion to that deeper something within. 

You will find that the confusion disappears. The light which the storm seemed to have extinguished again becomes steady. Peace comes from a sense of union with the whole. Confusion comes from a sense of separation. Confusion comes because you are looking only at the surface. If you put a straight stick in a pool of water and then ruffle the surface of the pool, the stick will appear bent. It is not bent, however; it is merely a disturbance at the surface of the water that causes it to appear bent. If you swim under water beneath the disturbed surface and open your eyes, you will see a straight stick. The bent stick really was an illusion.

So it is with confusion. It exists as a condition but not as a reality. The mirage is in your own consciousness. If confusion comes, take your intellect and dive deep into your pool of peace. Through an act of faith open your eyes and you will see that there is no confusion.

Rising above confusion, you affirm the Divine Presence in all Its beauty, power and peace. From this fundamental affirmation your consciousness becomes imbued with a sense of power as well as of peace. You are now in a position to turn to any specific condition of discord, and, speaking with complete authority, to know that your word will reverse it.

The spiritual genius of Jesus lay in his knowledge of spiritual laws. He dared to believe in the invisible Source of his being, and to trust It. He was not frightened by the storm, nor by the fears of others. He could say, “Peace!” to both. He was able to bring the calm of others to the surface. This is “deep calling unto deep.” It is God calling unto God. It is God answering God.

Get it firmly fixed in your consciousness that just as there are laws of physics, there are spiritual and mental laws which act in an identical manner. Have confidence in the laws of Mind and Spirit, and in your ability to use them. Think of them as naturally as you do of other laws of nature.

Your meditation consciously used for definite purposes is a spiritual mind treatment. Your spiritual realization automatically acts upon the Law of Mind which is around you and in you. You will recognize this as the secret of the prayer of faith throughout the ages. It is the secret of the effectiveness of all modern metaphysical movements, no matter what they call themselves. There is no one-and-only way to understand or use the Law of Mind.

Realize that the Divine Presence is ever with you, that there is no place where you leave off and God begins. Here, in quiet confidence and calm peace, make known your desires. They are not prayers in the sense of petition. They are, rather, what Emerson called the thoughts of “a jubilant and a beholding soul.”

When working for yourself say, “I am.” When working for someone else say, “He is,” or “She is.” When you say, “I am,” you are directing your treatment to yourself. When you say, “He is,” or “She is,” you are directing it for someone else.

Your affirmation (prayer of faith or treatment) will reach a level in your experience, or in the experience of those whom you wish to help, equal to the level of realization in your own consciousness when you make your affirmation. It is like water reaching its own level by its own weight. 

Always feel that your treatment (your statement of truth) will meet any condition instantly, while, at the same time, being willing to work patiently until the condition is met. In each separate treatment (or statement of truth) believe that the work is already accomplished. Your treatment is really complete when your entire subjective reaction complies with, responds to, or embodies, the spirit and the meaning of the words you use. Persistence, flexibility and patience are necessary for the best results.

With a good-natured flexibility with yourself, learn to rise from confusion into peace, from sadness into joy. There is no law for you but your own soul shall set it, under the one great Law of all life. Turn to the Light within. Believe in yourself. Have confidence in the high impulsions that come to you. Listen deeply to the Divine Nature which forever more imparts Itself to you. Spirit is absolute, unlimited and ever available. Spirit is right where you are. Spirit fills all space, flows through all form, creates everything, governs everything through love, controls everything through law, expresses life and beauty in everything. 

This Thing called You, Chapter 9,

Ernest Holmes

Transiting Pluto going Stationary Direct over my Descendant

Transiting Pluto going Stationary Direct over my Descendant

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What is the meaning of transiting Pluto, stationary direct opposing my ascendant and conjoining my Mars/Uranus midpoint?

This is a very specific and powerful astrological question! A stationary outer planet aspecting the angles and personal planets is a significant event in any individual's chart.

Since you are asking about the meaning of this transit, I will search for the general interpretation of Pluto opposing the Ascendant and the meaning of the Mars/Uranus midpoint to provide you with the most comprehensive answer possible.

Here are the search queries I will use:

This is an extremely potent and significant transit. The fact that Pluto is stationary direct means its energy is amplified and the themes of the transit are locked into place for an extended period, creating a very focused and unmissable point of transformation.

Here is a breakdown of the meaning of this triple-whammy transit:

1. Transiting Pluto Stationary Direct Opposing the Ascendant

This is a major life-cycle transit that focuses the tremendous power of Pluto on your sense of self, your relationships, and your entire way of being in the world.

Astrological Factor Meaning and Impact

Pluto (Transformation, Power, Death/Rebirth, Unconscious) Pluto's transit demands a radical, fundamental, and complete transformation (a death and rebirth) of the area it touches. The change is irreversible and unyielding.

Stationary Direct (Amplification) The effect of Pluto is greatly intensified. This point in time marks a decisive turning point where the lessons and changes that have been brewing during the retrograde period are now pushed forward into external, tangible reality and conscious action. The feeling of "this must change now" is at its peak.

Opposition to the Ascendant (1st House Cusp) The Ascendant represents your outer personality, physical body, self-image, and the "mask" you present to the world. The opposition highlights the Descendant (7th House Cusp), which rules significant one-on-one relationships (partners, enemies, the public).

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Core Themes: Identity, Relationships, and Power

The combined energy creates an unavoidable process of:

Deep Identity Transformation: The person you have been, your outward persona, is being fundamentally challenged and broken down. You are being "forced" to become a new, more authentic version of yourself. Your physical appearance, mannerisms, and how you project yourself may change dramatically.

Confrontation in Relationships: The opposition aspect means Pluto is sitting on your Descendant. This transit often manifests through intense power struggles, confrontations, or profound transformation within your closest relationships.

External Pressure: Other people (partners, close associates) may act as a mirror, confronting you with your own unconscious patterns and power dynamics.

Attraction of Intensity: You may attract intense, controlling, or "Plutonian" people who force you to face your shadow self, set firm boundaries, and take back your personal power.

The "Death" of a Relationship: Relationships built on inauthentic grounds or outworn power dynamics may end, only to clear the way for deeper, more empowering connections.

Transiting Pluto Conjoining the Mars/Uranus Midpoint

This secondary conjunction creates a specific focus for the Plutonian power drive—it is channeling the theme of sudden, disruptive, and forceful action.

Midpoint Breakdown Meaning and Expression

Mars (Action, Assertion, Drive, Will) Provides the energy, courage, and motivation.

Uranus (Sudden Change, Liberation, Disruption, Revolution) Adds an element of suddenness, surprise, and a need for freedom.

Mars/Uranus Midpoint This natal midpoint combines the energy of volatile, sudden, and potentially explosive action. It is associated with decisive, independent, and perhaps impulsive action, a need for sudden and radical self-assertion, and the potential for breakthroughs or accidents/upheavals due to hasty action.

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The Combined "Planetary Picture"

When transiting Pluto conjoins this midpoint (Pluto = Mars/Uranus), the intense, transformational energy of Pluto activates and magnifies the Mars-Uranus drive.

Volcanic Eruptions of Will: Your suppressed anger, desire for freedom, or revolutionary impulses (Mars/Uranus) are being dredged up from the unconscious and empowered by Pluto. You may feel an almost compulsive urge to act radically and suddenly to change your circumstances.

Sudden, Irreversible Action: There is a high potential for sudden, forceful events that completely alter your life trajectory. This can manifest as an intense drive to break free from restrictive structures (career, relationship, lifestyle) with dramatic finality.

Empowerment of Independent Action: This can be a period where you claim enormous personal power (Pluto) to act as a pioneer or rebel (Uranus) on behalf of your deepest, most authentic desires (Mars). The actions you take during this period will be driven by an unshakeable inner conviction and will permanently change the course of your life.

Caution: This combination can indicate sudden, unexpected power struggles, accidents, or confrontations with authority figures or partners, especially if you try to repress the revolutionary energy building within you.

The Synthesis: A Time of Radical Self-Reinvention

In summary, this is an orchestrated and momentous period where the most profound work of transformation (Pluto) is channeled directly through your identity and key relationships (Opposite Ascendant/Conjunct Descendant) and fueled by an imperative for sudden, decisive, and rebellious action (Conjoining Mars/Uranus Midpoint).

You are at a critical junction where an old version of you is being killed off and a new, more powerful, and authentic self is being forged.

The stationary direct movement means you are now being forced to implement the changes and face the external consequences of the deep internal work that has been (or should have been) occurring.

The pressure will be to assert your freedom and will in a revolutionary way, especially in response to power dynamics or restrictive conditions imposed by others.

The key to navigating this transit is to consciously embrace the "death" of what no longer serves you—in your identity, your boundaries, and your relationships—rather than resisting the powerful, transformative flow.

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Bringing a Thought into Physical Manifestation

Bringing a Thought into Physical Manifestation

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1)  Avoid chaotic thinking and try to think logically. People who think chaotically are like those who wave their hands in the dark, unaware of the objects they hit. Since we cannot avoid thinking we should at least learn to think in an orderly manner. We are ourselves living thought and it is extremely difficult to control the incessant stream of material, The substance of our consciousness, which flows from our minds into space. If we could we would indeed be supermen. But let us do what we can. As soon as we are aware  of the negative thought, push it out. Replace aimless thoughts with precise ones. Actually they are less tiring. Each person, being different from every other person, should devise his own special pathway of logical thought.

2)  Avoid untruthful or distorted thinking. How many secrets of bad luck can be explained by distorted thinking! Observe, as far as you are able, the consequences of untruthful or distorted thought, sometimes called prejudice. Cease jeopardizing your own future. Stop releasing dark, dangerous’ thoughts, for these come back to you like a boomerang in the form of "bad luck." Here is much traveling dynamite that should be investigated both personally and also on a national scale. Of course, it is not easy to think straight. Most people are so crippled by their unconscious thoughts and prejudices they don't know if they are thinking truthfully or not and when things go wrong they are not aware of the connection.

3)  In addition to correction and counterbalance, adopt a positive attitude. A benediction sent into the world is the purest and finest form of thought energy. Your own projects can grow by benediction. Unfortunately people are usually so beset by personal problems this seldom occurs to them. Their desires for advancement, better social position and the approval of others dominate their thinking in a confused fashion. To ignore these tendencies is impossible, to try to rid one’s self of them is futile. The best course is to try to steer them into better and higher courses. It is a question of direction. The same exterior influences may move you to the same old course of action but when your aim is toward a higher objective your action becomes a move in the right direction. No one becomes perfect overnight and this does not mean you will no longer make mistakes. But as you become aware of the laws of energy and begin to handle the tools of thought with greater competence you will find your whole life changing for the better. You will become happier, better adjusted and more at peace with yourself and others as your power over your environment grows. And it surely will if you sincerely and faithfully follow the directions herein given.

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Wisdom of the Mystic Masters,

Joseph J. Weed