Creative mind

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Introduction

This little book is an attempt to explain what each soul must discover for himself, that he stands in the midst of an eternal creative power which presses itself around his own thought, and casts back to him glorified all that he thinks. If it awakens within the consciousness of one single individual the realization that the mind of the Universe (which is the only mind that there is) is his own mind; that the creative power of this mind is his also; that the manifestation of this mind is his own individuality; that the love and power and peace of this mind is within himself, it will not be written in vain. May it then do much in simplifying and bringing to light some of the deeper mysteries and meanings of life.

Ernest Shurtleff Holmes,

October 1, 1918.

Part One Analysis Of Contents

IN THE BEGINNING 1

Spirit is the first cause in the creative series. Manifestation, the action of Spirit upon itself.

A PRINCIPLE THAT CAN BE PROVEN 4

"It is done unto you even as you believe."

THE WORD GOING FORTH 5

The word establishes itself as law.

WHY AND WHAT IS MAN? 7

Man is the outcome of the desire of the Spirit to make something which expresses the same life that It feels.

THE LAW OF OUR LIVES 8

We are centers of creative thought activity in the

Universal Mind.

Unlimited life is latent in man.

MAN'S PART 10

Through harmony with Universal Mind man's word

becomes the law of his life.

Man not a creator but his thought is creative.

V vi Contents

BONDAGE AND FREEDOM 13

Ignorance is the only bondage.

Freedom is the law of belief.

THE WORD 14

As God's word is in the Universe so man's word is in his own life.

THE MAN WHO HAS ARRIVED 17

The one who can control his thinking is he to whom time and place makes no difference.

THE POWER WE HAVE WITHIN US 17

We have as much creative power as we allow to flow through us.

INDIVIDUAL IDEAS 18

Have power to manifest as long as held.

THE REASON FOR THE UNIVERSE 19

MIND IN ACTION 19

All Law is mind in action, both Cosmic and in the

individual.

Life externalizes at the level of our thought.

ACTION AND REACTION 20

Law of cause and effect always operative.

ARRIVING AT A HIGH CONSCIOUSNESS 21

Have faith and willingness to believe in the law of life to do for us.

Contents vii

OUTER SUGGESTIONS 22

Are under our own control. We must learn to govern

life by inner realization.

Working in union with the power of good.

THE USE OF THE GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS 24 The inner realization that - good is always with us results in health, happiness and prosperity.

THE GREATER CONSCIOUSNESS 26

The realization of completion brings us into the enlarged consciousness.

THE PERFECT UNIVERSE 30

We must come to realize that we are living in a perfect universe peopled with perfect ideas ; it - appears to us as we harmonize with it.

ABOUT STRUGGLE KARMA 32

The great law of life is thinking and becoming. Karma is the result of false thinking. The only escape is to know what the truth is and think it.

Table Of Contents

INTRODUCTORY 35

THE SAME POWER USED IN TWO WAYS. ... 37

HEALING THE SICK 39

Part I. In The Beginning

66 TN the beginning, God !" Clear and expressive are these words. In the beginning, God only. No manifest universe! No system of planets! Nothing of form or life, of brute or man ! God was the Spirit of All that was to be, but He had not yet moved upon the waters. Then this All-Being moved, or began to create. Where did Spirit move, upon what did It move to create; where did It get a pattern; what means or power did It employ; through what agencies did It work? In short, what is the world, ourselves included, made out of, and how did we and all else come into being? These questions correctly answered would solve the problem of being and set men free. Let us consider.

The Spirit was all; there was nothing else but Itself. All-inclusive, Everywhere, Infinite. This All-Spirit could not have had the impulse to move unless It were selfconscious, therefore the Spirit is the Power that knows Itself ; It is accordingly All-Knowing as well as All-Present. Being one, undivided, whatever It knows, It knows all over instantly. We find then that the Spirit operates through self knowing. It moves, and that inner movement must be one of Infinite Power, moving upon Itself — since It is all — and with a definite purpose. The Spirit, then, moves

> upon Itself, and makes out of Itself all that is made. In other words, what we see comes from what we do not see, through some inner intelligence at work, which knows there is no power but Itself. "The things that are seen are not made of the things that do appear." The only possible operation of intelligence is thought, or "The Word." So all things were made by the Word, and "Without the Word was not anything made that hath been made." How simple the process of creation when we understand it. The Spirit speaks — and since there is nothing but the Spirit and it is All-Power, it has only to speak and it is done ; "The Word was with God and the Word was God."

From the Word, then, comes forth all that appears. Each life, human or divine, each manifestation is a different kind of word coming into expression. The great fact to dwell upon is that Spirit needs nothing to help It ; It is selfconscious and has all power and all ability to do whatever It wishes to accomplish. It operates simply by speaking.

It is hard to get a clear concept of this great Ceaseless Cause, this something from which all things come ; at times we get into a maze of confusion when we attempt to realize what the Spirit means. It is then that we should think of It as the great reason behind everything. Being all-knowledge It must know Itself, and must know everything It creates ; so It knows us and It knows everyone. Since It is All-Presence we can contact anywhere and will never have to go to some particular spot to find It. As It is All-Knowing and operates through the power of the Word, It know everything we think. Just how It creates we cannot know and need not attempt to understand, for whatever this process of creation is, we find it is always an inner thought process. We should keep this in mind — the Spirit makes all things out of Itself. Everything comes into being without effort, and when we exert ourselves we are not in accord with the Creative Spirit in the way in which It works. The impulse of the Spirit to move must be caused by a desire to express what It feels Itself to be — Beauty, Form, Color, Life, Love and Power. All things else we find in the manifest universe are attributes of the Spirit, and are caused to spring into being through the Word, because the Spirit wants to enjoy Itself.

We find, then, that the Word, which is the inner activity of thought, comes first in the creative series, and all else comes from the effect of the Word operating upon a universal substance. If the Word precedes all else, then the Word is what we are looking for, and when we get it we shall have what the world has sought from time immemorial. We must, if we wish to prove the power of the Spirit in our lives, look not to outside things or effects, but to the Word alone. The human eye sees and the human hand touches only that which is an effect. Unseen law controls everything; but this Law also is an effect; Law did not make itself; the Law is not intelligence or causation. Before there can be a Law there must be something that acts, and the Law is the way it acts ; it is intelligence. "In the beginning was the Word." This Word or the activity of the Spirit, is the cause of the law, and the law in its place is the cause of the thing, and the thing is always an effect ; that is, it did not make itself ; it is a result. The Word always comes first in the creative series; "The Word was with God and the Word was God" and the Word still is God.

When we realize that man is like God (and he could not be otherwise, being made out of God), we will realize that his word also has power. If there is but One Mind then it follows that our word, our thought is the activity of that One Mind in our consciousness; the power that holds the planets in their place is the same power that flows through man. We must place the Word where it belongs, whether it is the word of God in the Universe or the word of man in the individual; it is always first, before all else, in the beginning. The real sequence is this : Cause, Spirit, Intelligence, God; the Word, the activity of Intelligence; the effect, or the visible thing, whether it is a planet or a peanut. All are made out of the same thing.

What we need to do is to learn how to use the word so that all will come to see that they are creative centers within themselves.

A PRINCIPLE THAT CAN BE PROVEN.

TTNOWING that Mind is, we have a principle that is absolute ; it is exact ; it is going to correspond to our thinking about it. The first great necessity is to believe this ; without belief we can do nothing. This is the reason Jesus said "It is done unto you even as you have believed." Always it is done unto people as they believe, and there is Something that does it which never fails.

We must believe that our word is formed upon and around by this creative Mind; for instance, we wish to create activity in our business; we believe that our word is law about that thing, and there is something that takes our thought and executes it for us. If we have accepted the fact that all is mind and that the thought is the thing, we shall see at once that our word is the power behind the thing, and that it depends upon the word or thought that we are sending out. (See Creative Mind and Success by the author.)

So plastic is mind, so receptive, that the slightest thought makes an impression upon it. People who think many kinds of thought must expect to receive a confused manifestation in their lives. If a gardener plants a thousand kinds of seeds, he will get a thousand kinds of plants; it is the same in mind.

THE WORD GOING FORTH.

QINCE this is true, everything depends upon our mental concepts. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" ; the Bible reiterates this statement telling us many times of the creative power of thought; Jesus taught nothing else; He said "the words which I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life/'

The Centurion coming to Jesus recognized the power of the word spoken by the latter. He said, "I also am one in authority"; but his authority was on the physical plane, and he saw that Jesus had authority on a Spiritual plane, for he said, "Speak the word only."

The Bible also tells us that the word is not afar off but in our own mouth. It is neither here nor there ; it is within every living soul. We must take the responsibility for our own lives. All must awake to the facts that they have absolute control over their lives, and that nothing can happen by chance. Then they will have a broader concept of God, a greater tolerance for their neighbor, and a greater realization of their own divine nature. What a relief from strenuous labor; no more struggle or strife. "Be still and know that I am God, and beside me there is none other." The Spirit being all there is, we cannot conceive of anything that can hinder its working. When the Spirit has spoken, the Word becomes Law, for before the Law is the Word ; It precedes all else. First is Absolute Intelligence, All- Power, All-Presence, All-Causation; then the movement upon itself through the power of the Word ; then the Word becoming Law; the Law producing the thing and holding it in place.

So long as the Word exists the thing will exist, for since the Word is All-Power there is nothing beside It. "I Am that I Am, and beside me there is none other." This "I Am" is Spirit, God, All. There is no physical explanation for anything in the universe ; all causation is Spirit and all effect spiritual. We are not living in a physical world but in a spiritual world peopled with spiritual ideas. We are now living in Spirit.

God, or Spirit, governs the universe through great mental laws that work out the divine will and purpose, always operating from Intelligence. This Intelligence is so vast, and the power so great that our human minds cannot even grasp it ; all that we can hope to do is to learn something of the way in which it works, and by harmonizing ourselves with it, to so align ourselves with Spirit that our lives may be controlled by the great harmony that obtains in all the higher laws of nature, but has been very imperfectly manifested in man. This brings us to the second point of consideration.

Creative Mind.

WHY, AND WHAT IS MAN?

TT/HE find in the physical universe that automatic laws govern everything; for instance, the tree cannot say "I will not," because of the law that holds it in place; it grows without any volition of its own. So it is with all nature ; but when we come to man we find a different manifestation of the Spirit, a being who can say "I choose." In all creation, man alone is an individual ; man alone is free ; and yet man alone wants, is sick, suffers, and is unhappy. "Man marks the earth with ruin"; why? because he has not found his true nature. The very thing that should free him, and eventually will do so, now limits him. God could not make an individual without making him able to think, and he cannot think without bringing upon himself the results of his thought, good or bad. This does not mean using two powers, but using the One from two standpoints. Nothing in itself is either good or bad; all things exist in mind as a potentiality; mind is eternally acting upon thought, continually producing its own images from mind, and casting them out into manifestation. Man must be the outcome of the desire of the Spirit to make something which expresses the same life that It feels. Man is made to be a companion of the Infinite; but to arrive at this exalted plane of being, he must have his freedom, and be let alone to discover his own nature; to return love to his Creator only when he chooses to do so. At the doorway, then, of man's mind this wonderful God has to wait. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock" ; the opening must be on the part of the individual.

Man lives in a mind that presses in upon him from all sides with infinite possibilities, with infinite creative power. The divine urge of infinite love crowds itself upon him, and awaits his recognition. Being the image of this Power, his thought also must be the Word or cause in the life. At the center of his being is all the power that he will need on the path of his unf oldment ; all the mind that man has is as much of this Infinite Mind as he allows to flow through him. We have often thought of God as far off, and of man as a being separate from the All Good; now we are coming to see that God and man are one, and that that One is simply awaiting man's recognition, that he may spring into being and become to man all that he could wish or want. "As the father has inherent life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life within himself." It could not be otherwise ; we are all in Mind and Mind is always creating for us as we think ; and as we are thinking creatures, always thinking, our happiness depends upon our thought. Let us consider the law of our life.

THE LAW OF OUR LIVES.

CPIRIT creates through law,. v The law is always mind in action. Mind cannot act unless intelligence sets it in motion. In the great universal mind man is a center of intelligence, and every time he thinks he sets mind into action. What is the activity of this mind in relation to man's thought ? It has to be one of mental correspondence ; that is, mind has to reflect whatever thought it casts into it. Wonderful as Universal Mind is, it has no choice but to create whatever thought is given it ; if it could contradict that thought, it would not be a unit, since this would be recognizing something outside itself. This is a point in Truth which should not be overlooked. The ONE MIND knows only its own ability to make whatever is given It; It sees no other power and never analyzes or dissects; It simply KNOWS, and the reason why people do not understand this is that they have not realized what mind is. The ordinary individual thinks of mind only from the limitation of his own environment. The concept he has of mind is the concept of his own thinking, which is very limited.

We are surrounded by an All Seeing, All Knowing Mind, which is One and runs through all. The belief in the dual mind has destroyed practically all philosophies and religions of the ages, and will continue to do so until the world comes to see that there is but One. Whatever name is given it there is but One. It is this One that creates for us, whatever we believe. Our thought operative through this One produces all our affairs. We are all centers in this Mind, centers of creative thought activity. There is nothing which appears in the manifest Universe other than an objectified thought, whether it be a bump on your head, a growth on your foot or a planet. It could not be there were it not made out of Mind, for mind is all there is to make anything out of. Whatever is made is made out of it. Nothing exists or can exist without a source from which it springs.

We are not dealing with a negative as well as a positive Power — not two powers but one ; a power that sees neither good nor evil, as we see it. It knows only that it is all, and since it is all, it creates whatever is given it. From our limited standpoint we often think of good, and evil; not realizing that, as yet, we do not know the one from the other. What we call good to-day, we may call evil to-morrow, and what we think to be evil to-day, we may to-morrow proclaim as the greatest good we have known. Not so with the Great Universal Power of Mind; It sees only Itself, and Its infinite ability to create.

To the thinking person this will mean much ; he will see that he is no longer living in a limited universe, a world of powers, but that he is immersed in an Infinite Creative Medium which, because of Its Nature, has to create for him whatever he believes. Jesus understood this, and in a few simple words, laid down the law of life: "It is done unto all people as they believe." This is a great thing to keep in mind. It is done unto us; we do not have to do it, for it is done unto us of a power that knows itself to be all there is. Could we even believe that some material mountain would be moved, the power is there to do it. Without this belief there is no re,al impulse for the Creative Mind, and we do not get an affirmative answer. We must realize more clearly that this Great Power has to operate through us.

MAN'S PART.

QREATIVE MIND cannot force itself upon us because we have the power of self-choice. It recognizes us when we recognize it. When we think that we are limited or have not been heard, it must take that thought and bring it into manifestation for us.

When we look about us and see nature so beautiful, so lavish and so limitless, when we realize that something, some power, is behind all, and sees to it that plenty obtains everywhere, so that in all things manifest there is more than could be used; and when on the other hand we see man so limited, sick, sad and needy, we are disposed to ask this question : "Is God good after all ? Does He really care for the people of His creation ? Why am I sick ? Why am I poor?" Little do we realize that the answer is in our own mouths, in the creative power of our own thought. The average person when told the Truth will still seek some other way.

God has already done for us — in a mechanical way — all that He can do ; and having been given the ability, we will have to do for ourselves the rest. Yet the Great Power is always near, ready at any time to help, but we must use it according to its own nature in harmony with its laws. Man should learn that he himself is the center of this Divine activity. Realizing this, he must seek more and more to utilize his own Divine nature, and by so doing he will come more fully under the protection of the great laws that govern all life, manifest and unmanifest. Whatever man is, he must find that because he is made out of God, he must be of the same nature. This Infinite One cannot know anything outside of itself ; anything that would be a contradiction of its Divine nature ; man's ignorance of his real nature binds him with his own freedom, until he comes to see things as they really are, and not as they appear to be.

In the Infinity of mind, which is the principle of all metaphysics and of all life, there is nothing but mind, and that which mind does. That is all there is in the Universe.

That is all there ever was or ever will be. This mind is acted upon by our thought, and so our thought becomes the law of our lives. It is just as much a law in our individual lives as God's thought is in the larger life of the Universe.

For the sake of clearness, think of yourself as in this Mind, think of yourself as a center in it. That is your principle. You think, and Mind produces the thing. One of the big points to remember is that we do not have to create ; all that we have to do is to think. Mind, the only Mind that there is, creates.

Few people seem to understand the nature of the law and so think that they have got to do something, even if it is only holding a thought; thinking or knowing is what does the thing. It will make it much easier for us when we realize that we do not have to make anything, just to know ; that there is something back of the knowing which does the work for us.

That person gets the best results who realizes that he can use this divine principle; he who can get the clearest concept of his idea, and who can rely on mind to do for him, keeping everything out of his thought that would contradict the supremacy of Spirit or Mind.

By simply holding a thought we could not make anything but by knowing in mind what cannot we do?

BONDAGE AND FREEDOM.

TVEVER get away from the fact that you are surrounded by such a power ; it is the principle of demonstration. It knows every thought. As we send forth our thought into it, it does unto us. The person who is ignorant of this law must by that ignorance be bound by his thought, by his human beliefs. One who understands will begin to break these ties that bind him ; one by one he will destroy every negative thought until at last he is able to think what he wants to think; and so he frees himself by the use of the same power that at one time bound him. We must destroy all thought that we would not see manifest and hold to that which we would see, until we receive the affirmative answer.

Never struggle, Mind makes things out of Itself, there is no effort made. Don't think that there is so much to be overcome. Have only a calm sense of perfect peace as you realize that God is all, and that you are using the perfect law and that nothing can hinder it from working for you. Many people are learning to do this, and no one has yet failed to demonstrate who has been steadfast, using the law in a consistent and persistent trust.

All that we have to do is to provide the right mental and spiritual attitude of mind and then believe that we already have, and the reward will be with us. We shall see it.

The time will come when we will not have to demonstrate at all because we will be always living so near to the law that it will do all for us without much conscious thought on our part.

So when you say, "I am poor, sick or weak ; I am not one with the Creative Mind," you are using that creative power to keep yourself away from the Infinite; and just as soon as you declare that you are one with God, there is a rushing out to meet you, as the Father rushed out to meet the prodigal son. 'The Spirit seeketh," but as long as your mind thinks in the terms of conditions you cannot overcome. The difficulty comes from our inability to see our own Divine nature, and its relation to the Universe. Until we awake to the fact that we are one in nature with God, we will not find the way of life; until we realize that our own word has the power of life we will not see the way of life; and this brings us to the consideration of the use of the Word in our lives.

THE WORD.

66r THE Word was with God and the Word was God." "The Word is nigh thee, even in thy own mouth that thou shouldst know it and do it." What does this mean? It clearly states that whatever power there is in the Word (and it says it is All Power) is also in our own mouths. There is no avoiding the fact that the Bible claims for man the same power in his own life and his own world that it claims for God. In the lives of the majority, men do not realize that the Word is in their own mouths. What Word? Little do we realize that this Word which they are so earnestly seeking is every word they hear, think or speak. Do we who are endeavoring to realize the greater truths of life always govern our words? If any word has power, it follows that all words have power. It is not in the few moments of spiritual meditation that we demonstrate, but we bring out the possibilities of the hidden word when we are allowing our thoughts to run in any direction; not in the short time spent in silence, but in the long hours stretching themselves into days, months, and years, are we always using the word. An hour a day spent in silent meditation will not save us from the confusion of life ; the fifty-one per cent, of a man's thinking is what counts. It is easy when we are alone to brave the storms of life ; surrounded by our own exalted atmosphere we feel the strength of the Infinite ; we rise in Spirit, we think we are experiencing the ultimate of truth, that all things are ours. These moments in a busy life are well spent, but must unavoidably be brief. But what of the rest of the day; what of the busy street, of the market place, and of all the daily contact with life? Do we then obtain? Do we keep on in the same even way? Or do we fall before the outer confusion of our surroundings ? We are still creating the word and setting it afloat in the great ethers of life. Are these words creating for us? Yes!

How necessary, then, to "keep the independence of the solitude"; how seldom we do this!