Forgivingness

"It is only when we have completely forgiven others that we can get a clearance in our own minds, for we are judged by the judgment with which we judge. If we criticize, condemn, and censure, these are the attitudes that occupy our thinking. They will not only reflect themselves outwardly, they will also reflect themselves inwardly. They must, for the without is but an extension of the within, and the within is the determinor of that extension. If we want a complete clearance of our attitudes, we must forgive everything and everyone. Whether we like it or not, or whether we accept it or not, this is one of the great truths of life.

“Not only should we forgive others but we should equally forgive ourselves. Until we release all of our own previous mistakes and failures, pain and suffering, we shall merely be monotonously repeating them today. A great deal of our trouble, both mental and physical, is built on an unconscious sense of rejection and guilt. It is necessary that each of us seek complete forgivingness toward both ourself and others.

Today I affirm that I forgive everyone and am forgiven by everyone. I affirm that the eternal Spirit harbors no malice toward me or anyone else. Forgiving and being forgiven, I have an inward sense of peace and tranquility. There is no anxiety, no sense of guilt, no fear of judgment. All mistakes of the past are now wiped out in my consciousness and I no longer carry any burden from them. I look forward to the future with joy, in peace and gladness, and live in the present with an inner assurance of being one with all life."

 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. —MARK 11:25

Identification

"Spiritual mind treatment is an affirmation of the Divine Presence in and through all things, all people, and all events. There is one intelligent Law governing all things. We live in this Divine Presence and may consciously use this Universal Law. But someone might ask, How does our prayer, our treatment, or our affirmation reach the person, place, or the thing we wish to help? This question is answered when we come to realize that we are individualized expressions of the One Life.

Whenever we identify our thinking with some person or thing, we identify him or her or it as the object of that thinking, and automatically, because there is One Law operating, the result of that thinking will be for that person or thing. Since the focus of our treatment or prayer is in the One Mind, the mere act of identifying our affirmation with that person or thing brings about an effect upon him, her, or it.

Today I am identifying myself, everyone else, and everything I do with the Divine Presence. I am not trying to influence people. I am not holding thoughts to make things happen. I am not concentrating Divine energies for any purpose whatsoever. Rather, I am still, knowing that God is over all, in all, and through all. Through my affirmation I am watching, expecting, and knowing that there will be a reaction through whatever I identify with my word. Therefore, I am at ease; I am at peace. I affirm the Divine Presence and Its manifestations as happiness, prosperity, and well-being for everyone. We dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.”

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

Givingness

"There can be no real gift unless the giver goes with it. Giving includes more than the giving of money or things, it includes the giving of service or whatever we have to others, but always the gift and the giver must go hand in hand. The surrender of everything we have and everything we are into the joy of its own self-expression—this is the way that God gives. This is the way we should give.

Real giving is the art of transmitting ourselves to others and to the conditions and situations that surround us. This kind of giving is not something for special occasions only; for it should become a habit growing out of our desire to live life to the fullest extent. Only that which becomes an inward habit of thought can spontaneously flow from the heart and transmit itself to everything we touch. Just as life belongs to the one who lives it, to the one who takes it, so the fuller life belongs only to the one who scatters every good he has. It is by giving of oneself to every person, every project, and every association with zest, love, and friendliness that one sees the larger possibility in all things: beauty instead of ugliness, love instead of hate, the Divine hidden within the human.

“Today and every day it is my desire that what Life has given to me so abundantly shall be shared with others. I desire to share this realization of the indwelling Presence with everyone. In this consciousness I say, Bless you, my friend. I desire for you health, happiness, and success. I desire for you love, peace, and joy. I desire for you the benediction of the kingdom of God here upon earth."

 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth. —PROVERBS 11:24

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

Divine Patterns

"There is a Divine pattern for humanity, and within this pattern there is a variation that individualizes each one of us. This is why the Bible says that we should act in accordance with the pattern shown us on the mount, a symbol of high consciousness. When we lift our thought above the confusion of the material world, we become aware of the spiritual Cause behind all things.

It is no idle statement to affirm the Perfection of God as the center of all things, manifesting in and through each and every thing in a unique way. We should spend more time meditating upon the harmony, the beauty, the peace, and the joy that exist at the center of our own being. We cannot believe that our inner wholeness was created by us or came into being through a process of evolution. Quite the reverse. All evolution is a result of the action of an imprisoned splendor that exists at the center of all things.

Today I seek the Divine pattern at the center of my own being. Affirming its reality, I permit its essence to flow through me. Claiming it as my very own, I embrace it. Believing in its beauty, I sense its harmony. Accepting its peace, I am calm. Living in its love, I am unified with life. Believing in its power, with childlike faith, I accept the authority of its action in my everyday affairs. And looking at the God in humankind, I see in everyone the pattern of God’s Perfection. I see God’s image and likeness."

 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. —I CORINTHIANS 12:6

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

Living Today

"It is not the particular negative experiences we have gone through in the past that destroy our happiness, but rather our emotional reaction to those experiences carried in the reservoir of memory. Many people suffer complete defeat without having really been defeated; others succumb the first time anything goes wrong. It is one of the aims of psychosomatic medicine, analytical psychology, and psychiatry to drain out the negative and emotional reactions to previous experiences. There is just as real an infection of the mind as there is of any part of our physical body.

Almost invariably our negative reactions to life, our unhappiness, and perhaps most of our physical disorders are based on unhappy experiences that are buried, but buried alive, in our memory. But yesterday can have no reality to us other than as our reaction to it. It can have no real existence of its own in today other than as the lengthened shadows of yesterday. And so it is that as the impulsions of yesterday are carried over into today, making today happy or disconsolate, so the reactions of today are prophetic of what we will experience tomorrow.

Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not arrived, and I live in an eternal present filled with an everlasting good. There is nothing unhappy or morbid in my consciousness. I have no fear of yesterday nor do I anticipate tomorrow with anything other than enthusiastic expectation. Everything good in my experience will create my future. I have no fear in looking backward or forward, but realize the eternal day in which I now live. Today is big with hope fulfilled, with love and life well lived. Tomorrow will provide its own blessings."

 Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. —EPHESIANS 4:23

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

Human Relations

"There is One Spirit incarnated in everyone, an immortal Presence forever expanding everything, causing everything to grow. What a difference it would make in our human relations if we tried to sense the meaning of this Divine incarnation in all people and adjust our viewpoint to the truth that all are bound together in the unity of God. While it is true, as the Scripture says, that now we see through a glass darkly, there still is hidden within each one the Cause of all life, all aspiration, and all faith.

We are so used to thinking of ourselves as separate from one another that we suspect the very feeling and emotion that causes us to embrace everything in love. The one who loves the most will live the most. We meet each other only in fragments, only partially, only in a miserly way when we refuse to open the whole avenue of our consciousness to the realization that there is but one living Spirit. If our human relations are to mean the most to us, we must sense that there is hidden within, around, and through each of us a Divine Presence manifesting Itself in infinite variations—the same impulse, the same Love and Life, but never quite alike in any two persons.

Today I am going to meet each experience as I feel it really is. I will endeavor to see the Divine Presence in everything. I am demanding of myself that I see and sense and feel the One Life that flows through all things. I affirm this Presence and accept Its beneficent action because It already is. As I go forth today and embark on the wonderful experience of living, I am on a journey of self-discovery and also of the discovery of the self hidden in everyone and the Power in back of everything."

 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. —JOHN 17:21

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

Acceptance

"Spiritual mind treatment, or affirmative prayer, really is something we do to ourselves. The only direction we give to this treatment, this prayer, this affirmation of acceptance, is that we identify it with the person we are working for or the condition we wish to help. This is neither willing, concentrating, coercing, nor compelling anything or anyone. It is, rather, a quiet inward acceptance, an affirmation of our conviction, based on the theory that there is a spiritual Perfection at the center of all things in the universe and that there is a fundamental Good governing all things.

There is One Life, that Life is God, that Life is our life now. Consciously we identify ourselves with It, definitely we affirm the One Presence and the One Power operating in, around, and through us. Anything that denies the supremacy of Good is itself but a mistake in judgment. As we come to open up our thought to a greater acknowledgment and acceptance of the Divinity that resides within us, we find ourselves on the pathway to achieving the purpose for which we were created: to express the nature of the Divine, the Source of our being.

Today I accept my own affirmations. There is nothing in me that can contradict them. I have a deep inward sense, feeling, conviction, and complete faith that there is a Power of Good governing everything; that It is governing completely, with absolute certainty, without deviation, without exception and that there is nothing to oppose It, to change It, to limit or circumscribe Its action. I abandon myself to this faith, live in its atmosphere, and accept its conclusion. I know that I am a Divine being on the pathway of an endless self-expression and that the eternal God is my host, now and forevermore."

 I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. —GENESIS 17:1”

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

Affirmative Prayer

"Today thousands of people are coming to believe in, and use, the power of affirmative prayer. We are entering into a new era of spiritual acceptance. Something definite is happening in the field of spiritual thought and endeavor. From all sources we are coming to realize that affirmative prayer is dynamic. It should be easier today than ever before for people to accept the simple teaching that there is a Power greater than ourselves that desires our good, and a Law of Mind that we may consciously use for definite purposes. We shall be both inspirational and scientific when we come to believe this—inspirational in the belief and scientific in the use of the Law. For while the belief is personal, the Law is impersonal and acts upon our thought regardless of who we are.

We should come to believe in the exactness of this Law. We should use It definitely and consciously. This requirement applies in every science and it applies equally to the Science of Mind, for we are not dealing with chaotic laws that may or may not respond to us. We are dealing with the certainty of a reaction that is equal to the action or a response that is equal to our own conviction. We are dealing with a definite principle, but the conviction is personal, a thing of warmth, of color, and of feeling.

Today I affirm the All-Good. I know that my word, being acted upon by a Power greater than I am, is sure to accomplish its purpose. Therefore, I find peace, joy, and an inward tranquility in my own acceptance. Knowing that the Law of God is perfect, I know that my word is certain. My faith is complete; my affirmation cannot be denied. Living in this continual acceptance, finding security in this complete trust, in gratitude I accept every good thing Life has to offer and in love I share it with all."

 I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. —I CORINTHIANS 14:15

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

I Form a New Concept of God We shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. —I CORINTHIANS 15:51-52

"The Power of Life within you is a spiritual power, able to bring to you permanent peace, increasing happiness and joy, and greater material abundance. These things that have made man miserable can be eliminated through the conscious use of this Power. God could not visit fear or hate or impoverishment upon us, because God transcends these things. The world needs a new concept of God; a new idea must be born in the minds of people everywhere about the nature of God and their relationship to this Divine Creative Spirit.

The only thing that can bring love, joy, peace, and prosperity to the world is a direct experience of the Invisible. We must sense the immediate presence of Life. With simplicity and directness, we must sense that the Spirit is at the center of our own lives. We must learn to recognize that It is at the center of all people and working in human affairs. While it is true that the Power of God is always within us, it is not true that we have always realized Its presence. To realize this is to be able to make conscious use of it, to direct It, for ourselves and for others.

I rely on my Inner Power to work with me in creating the kind of life I deeply desire. I know that within myself I can find the guidance I seek and the strength I need. With Love in my heart, knowing I am unbound and unlimited, I accept myself as a happy, healthy, strong, and successful person right here and now.”

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes

I Make Intelligent Use of Universal Laws I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart. —I KINGS 3:12 "The Universe is impersonal. It gives alike to all. It is no respecter of persons. It values each alike. The philosopher, the priest, and the professor, the humanitarian and the empire builder, all have caught some gleam of the Eternal God. The world of knowledge needs to be knit together and not pulled apart. The road to freedom lies, not through mysteries, but through the intelligent use of natural forces and laws. We do not create laws and principles, but discover and make use of them. Our mind and spirit is our echo of the Eternal Thing Itself, and the sooner we realize this fact, the sooner we will be made free and happy.

Don’t we all agree that the world is tired of mysteries, does not understand symbols, and longs for Reality? We should take truth wherever we find it, making it our very own. Intellectual freedom and religious liberty are necessary to the unfolding spirit in man.”

Excerpt From 365 Science of Mind Ernest Holmes