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“We
are always specializing the Law of cause and effect for some
purpose. Mostly we are doing this unconsciously. Now we must
learn to bring our thoughts and purposes into line with the
original harmony. In doing this we should not be afraid that we
are usurping the Divine Will any more than a farmer would be
afraid that he is going contrary to the laws of nature or the
will of G-d when he decides to plant corn instead of cotton. The
necessity of choosing is ordained by the very nature of our
being, and we cannot escape it.
We are at liberty to choose what manner of life we shall live.
We should feel that in this choice we are backed by all the
will, all the purpose and all the law in the universe. Our
reliance is on this law and order. It is the creative agency of
all life and at the same time our use of it is personal and
individual.
Here is
all the freedom one could ask for and all the freedom that the
Infinite Spirit itself could possibly have given us — the
freedom to act as an individual, the freedom to give full rein
to our creative imagination, the freedom to do this, at least
temporarily, in such a way as to produce discord instead of
harmony; and more important, the freedom to produce harmony
instead of discord.
If we couple with this the idea that no one can
harm another without ultimately hurting themselves, that good
alone can finally win, we shall see that when any individual’s
consciousness is in tune with the Infinite they need no longer
ask, “Does G-d wish me to be happy or whole?” or, “Does the Law
of Good desire me to have this thing which I desire?” They need
merely ask, “Can I conceive of this as being done? Am I certain
that my desire is in line with good? If it is, nothing is
against me and everything is for me.”
–
from How to Use the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes (slightly
modified)
We can read in the ancient wisdom of the Holy
Bible that
“as you sow, so shall you reap”
and these words are synonymous with the definition of cause and
effect and Karma. The Master Mind Jesus, however, took this law
of cause and effect and the Hindu and Buddhist law of Karma to a
deeper more profound level of consciousness; he said,
“it is done unto you as you believe.”
In other words, it is not just what we do or say but what we
believe about ourselves and what we believe about others, and
what we believe about just about everything, that scores a
karmic hit either for or against us. Our way then is to rid our
consciousness of negative beliefs. If we know someone is a
crook, let them be a crook to the world but in our mind hold
them as consciousness expressing at the level at which they
presently exist in their mind. For it is their consciousness,
not ours, that is expressing as a crook, so we can leave them
right where they are and hold nothing in our mind as negative
about them. This is not always easy to do but we can lessen the
negativity in our mind by not dwelling on the negative qualities
of people and by definitely not speaking out loud the word
crook. If we burn our finger on a hot stove we don’t think of
the stove as evil or hateful, we know that the stove is doing
what a stove does; nothing more.
William James wrote:
“The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief
system that is not working. To perceive the world differently,
we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past
slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our
minds.”
This fear in our minds takes our liberty away. It creates
limitations through worry, anxiety and repetitive thinking of
past disappointments. As we dissolve fear in our mind and learn
to resist not evil as the Master Mind Jesus stated we should do,
we shall at the same time loose the limitations that bind us to
that which we seek to eliminate from our life experience.
We are all “held in Mind” … as we have learned
from the ancient wisdom, “in Him (Spirit/Mind) we live and move
and have our being” … and so we are “subject” to the collective
consciousness or race mind as some will refer to it.
Nonetheless, this being “subject” does not make us a “victim”
but instead gives us a strengthened faith in the Good. Why?
Because we know as William James points out “the world we see
that seems so insane” is not of our making and we have the
liberty to change our own personal belief system. This is what
the Master Mind Jesus realized when he said, “be in the world
but not of the world.” We are of the One; Infinite Spirit,
Intelligence and Power.
Lastly, let’s think on these words from the
New World Encyclopedia: William James was not interested in
studying religious institutions or doctrines. He focused instead
on
"the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual people in
their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in
relation to whatever they may consider the divine."
For example, James compared two different types of religion
according to the feelings and emotions that they instilled in
people—the
“Religion of Healthy-Mindedness”
versus the
“Sick Soul.”
Healthy-minded religious people like
Mary Baker Eddy and Walt
Whitman hold firmly to their belief
in the “goodness of life”
while the “sick souls,”
like Leo Tolstoy and
Saint Augustine, constantly feel the
dark dread of evil invading their lives.
We shall always
have the Liberty to choose to either join the sick souls or
maintain a firm belief in the goodness of life. Let’s choose
the wonderful life every day in all circumstances that we may
find ourselves in. And in this consciousness, we can have
liberty without limitations.
Keep the Faith!
Henry Lee Bates
(Reverend Dr.)
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