Lesson 2 - Thought: The Creative or Imaging Power

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths." - Prov. iii:6.

These lessons are written in the natural order of divine expression and unfoldment. In giving the Statement of Divine Being as our first lesson, we commenced where all things commence. So Thought, being the first-born of Being, comes next in divine order, to be followed by the spoken word, the effect of thought.

In the first lesson, the student is instructed to put away the belief in an evil power and come upon the basis of unity as a preparatory step for a permanent awakening to Divine Truth.

Not until this division in belief is dispelled, and the eternal truth of unity established, will the student become illumined with understanding and absolute consciousness. When we know that there is but one Source and Power, the thought ceases to fluctuate between two beliefs: the one of good, and the other of evil; then fear, which is its outgrowth, ceases. Fear is the one error which weakens the expression of Faith, causing it to yield or submit to delusion.

"If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Perfect faith means to be undivided; and to be undivided is certainty; and certainty is knowledge; and this is wisdom. Then wisdom’s way is unity and harmony. So divine wisdom and perfect faith cannot be attained so long as there is a lingering belief in evil and sickness as a reality; and not until we know that there is but One All, which is the perfection and goodness of the universe, can we fully realize the truth that all misery is ignorance of the One.

In this lesson we will consider that you have cleared away the mists of illusion by correcting false beliefs, and are undivided in faith and perception, and that you are holding to the truth that there is but One Life, which fills you with the light of understanding and perfect faith.

The times are ripe for a complete change of thought, a spiritual awakening. The greatest need of humanity is knowledge, certainty; a fixed and unwavering faith in goodness; a certainty of where to turn for health and happiness; and how to realize the peace and rest for which all are longing and thirsting. Recognition is the method by which the ever present kingdom of God is realized; we can only realize the kingdom, power and glory in which we live, by recognizing it in our own perfected thought.

The subject of greatest value for the world’s considerations is that of correct thinking, and how to think, in order to evoke and bring forth into manifestation the wealth of power and goodness in which all rest. This question of correct thinking interests equally every man, woman and child in the invisible and visible spheres. How to think that our thoughts may truthfully represent Deity, is of equal value to all.

The true idealistic teaching is that thought is the first expression of God; the highest and most substantial expression in the universe. Visible creation is thought made apparent to sense; invisible creation is idea made apparent to mind; both are in Divine Mind. Thought, says the Cabala, is the source of all that is visible; the first-begotten of the great Unknown. The Hermetic philosophy defines thought as the Son - that is, the first-born. Correct thinking brings harmonious results - the right word and deed in the right time and place. Ideas are possibilities of principle. Truthful conceptions of ideas are living images - formed in Infinite Mind in its likeness; they belong to Soul and are immortal, for Truth expressed is God manifest - the Christ revealed.

Truth is that which never changes; it is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; it appears alike to all persons, at all times, in all places; it is good for all at all times. In the beginning God alone was; that which was, is, and ever will be. The first chapter of Genesis is an account of the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created (in Infinite Mind, by thinking); in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. This truth is expressed in various allegories in the ancient books of wisdom. "At the beginning of a day of creation, Brahm, awakening from his sleep, begins to think, and his thoughts call worlds into existence."

The sacred writings of the ages teach that all things are first created ideal, the image of God’s idea; for His works represent Him. His method is one; therefore, before anything can appear on this outer plane, it must have pre-existed as an ideal creation or mental picture. You are to consider this as an established or fixed law of creation. Thought is the ancestor of word, deed and sensation; it precedes speech, whether the language be perfect or imperfect; it precedes sensation, whether it be pleasurable or painful. All external appearances, seemings and reflections, that we sense, are the result of subjects thought about and decisions rendered and held in mentality.

Thought shapes our whole existence and determines our course in life, whether it be that of success or failure. Therefore, it follows, that to change physical form, or feeling, or any external condition, success, or habit, we are first to change our thought and belief relative to ourselves and conditions; and if we would externalize the perfect we must have the perfect idea apparent, which is in absolute consciousness; if we would externalize health, we must perceive that health is an idea to be made apparent by holding it in memory. If we would have harmonious conditions, we must perceive them and hold them in thought. If we would heal humanity of their beliefs, and do good, we must perceive truth and speak it forth by works of faith, by holding to the perfect idea of the immortal.

The spoken word of truth is Truth called into appearance, or outer showing; its possibility or being is ever resting in its source, Divine Spirit. Few persons have known that it was possible to exert power over their own thoughts; but all must learn to control their thoughts before they can become master of their expressions or conditions. This can be accomplished only by denying a place to thoughts that are not in unity with Divine Being and your real self. For it is a law, as fixed as the eternal law of mathematics, that as a man or woman thinketh in their heart so is he or she in manifestation. The nature of the beliefs which we hold in memory and dwell upon, bring to us the experiences of our earthly lives, either of pain or pleasure, sunshine or shadow. So it is by our own thoughts and recognitions, that our conditions are pleasant or unpleasant. We receive from Infinite Justice, full payment for services rendered.

Unless our ideals be based in truth we cannot expect harmonious effects, for health is the evidence of harmoniously arranged thought; and appearance, called disease, is the evidence of inharmoniously arranged thought. Let the thought, that the all is good, possess you.

If we form the perfect idea of Divine Humanity, perceiving Spirit only, where there is nothing lacking morally, mentally or spiritually, we shall manifest power over all external conditions. The question naturally arises, can we so frame our thoughts?

Truth is the one remedy that heals all error. Where harmony or health is absent in expression, truth recognized makes it manifest; which changes belief into knowledge; truth’s practice brings into expression the silent attributes of the idea of God; it frees all who are heavyladen with error of belief, and gives peace and rest. Truth frees, because it is free and limitless.

Decisions rendered upon authority of mere appearance are false, and are negations of the living and true Spirit; they are the confusion, dissatisfaction and general discomfort that we feel; all know that many persons have passed through the change called death, from fear of what are called contagious diseases; fright has turned white the hair in a single hour; fright may mark and disfigure the form, or destroy the expression of life in the unborn child; thoughts cause and cure disease. Fear invites the condition feared. If we fear sickness, sorrow, evil, or anything, we virtually say to the condition or thing feared, You have power over me; thus are the mental and physical conditions disturbed, and we decide that we are subject to the condition feared. Fear comes from not knowing that which is real and permanent, and by not being able to trust the temporal, which is all that the sense knows.

That which is seen and is called evil is in seeming only, because the good is not known and realized; all dis-ease is an unconsciousness of ease resulting from negation of Spirit - the Infinite power. Thought, which is the opposite of Spirit, darkens mentality and veils it from understanding. Grief is the mental side of many diseases, so-called. A reflection of anger is inflammation. Anxiety and doubt are fear; they are at the root of every disease. Conditions that represent beliefs called hatred, envy, jealousy, malice, cruelty, revenge, prejudice, aversion, uncharitableness, are not born of the Spirit, and are cause for suffering.

Spirit, being the All, its opposite must be falsehood; for this reason we feel uncomfortable under adverse believing; but if beliefs represent that which truly is, harmonious conditions result therefrom. To the awakened, fear and doubt are an injustice to the ever-present Spirit. We do not change the attributes of Divine Mind by holding their opposites in consciousness; we cannot change the unchanging Principle; but, thought being the means by which we manifest, we do distort and limit our external manifestations by our error of thought and perception. All conditions of inharmony revealed by us are the externalizations of race-beliefs, that have found lodgment in our beliefs. Condemnation and fault-finding would not be entertained for a moment, if we fully realized and trusted the ever-present good. These race-beliefs are the result of selfness or personality, by which individuals virtually attempt to take things in their own hands and judge what should and should not be, and pass judgment upon the power of good according to their temporal or carnal beliefs; this condition represents one whose attention is fixed in effect - the letter; resulting from personal desire, made paramount over all else. As we perceive within ourselves the love, goodness, and justice of the Life in which we live, these errors drop away, and we realize that the great weight of afflictions maintained by us were false beliefs. False beliefs about ourselves are the delusions which darken the intuitive vision, and when we lift the veil of delusion and see ourselves as we are, thus putting away error of thought and perception, then pain and discomfort drop from us as naturally as leaves in autumn drop from trees.

Truthful thinking is the only protection or safeguard against the erroneous race-beliefs in sickness and sin. As long as we believe that good and evil, health and disease, are equally real, we shall sometime succumb to one belief, sometime to another. But when once the eye of understanding is singled to Spirit, and Truth alone is embodied in our ideal, all seeming burdens and inharmonies fall away. A house that is built upon sand, or a castle in air, a structure with a sandy, or without foundation, must of necessity fall. So all sensuous illusions or opinions, when exposed to the light of the science of Infinite Spirit, lose place and disappear from memory.

To think and feel yourselves united with all humanity as one in hope, purpose and destiny (as you are in the Source of Being), will determine the Universal Good to your aid in all your works; for in action you have asked, and will receive; you will externalize your own thoughts. To express a permanent condition of harmony, you must acknowledge the knowledge of Spirit, and work with it in all your ways. When you believe yourselves perfect in Divine Being, your thoughts and needs will conform with what you perceive yourselves to be.

To arrive at Truth we must find the opposite of what the senses reveal. So do not attribute power or quality to disease; do not name any appearance of inharmony; do not think or say that the body can environ or limit you in any way, nor claim to be subject to feelings, sensations, or effect of any kind.