一切现实来自梦想
在美轮美奂的梦想帝国,高大宫殿内游逸着那些富有激情的梦想家的灵魂。一切都为梦想所支配。梦想会展望未来,它总是先于我们的行动。在时光废墟上,梦想会为我们再造宏伟的家园。
自然科学带我们走进了这个充满各种神奇的发明创造的时代,但精神科学也不甘落后,已经扬帆启航。梦想家一显身手的时刻到了,他们可以发挥出全部聪明才智,令世界更加完美,令精神中形成的图景最终成为我们所拥有的现实,使我们的梦境变为现实,让我们美梦成真。
- 归纳法是真理,也是强有力的工具
- 是谁把归纳法向众人昭示
300多年,英国哲学家培根向世人大力推荐归纳法。我们的知识大多来源于此,因此我们必须掌握它。
- 归纳法无处不在
- 归纳法带来的成就
- 归纳法的前提
利用一切的工具与资源,细致、耐心、深入地观察每一个具体的事例,是实施归纳法的前提。
- 不要忽视那些细微的现象
我们不应该只关注自己希望看到的事物,而忽视那些我们不愿意见到的细微之处,实际上,细微之处往往隐藏着更多的真知。原因在于,那些你希望看到的事物,已经被别人研究透彻了。
- 不要被纷乱的表现所迷惑
在这个多元化的社会,充斥着大量的、繁杂的信息。但千万不要对此感到迷惑和厌烦,在复杂的表面现象的背后,往往隐藏着简单优美的真理。
- 没有任何事情可以超越自然法则
没有任何事情可以超越自然法则,这就意味着一切事物都可以被你掌控。
- 因果法则
因果关系原理在任何情况、任何领域都适用,一切现象都有导致它们发生的原因,而一切原因又会导致它们的结果。
- 思维可以把握一切自然法则
- 先驱者们为我们做出榜样
哥伦布、达尔文、伽俐略、布鲁诺都经历了无数冷嘲热讽甚至是残酷的迫害,但是他们的学说最终还是被世人接受认可,奉为传世的真理。
- 持有积极的思想
思想决定着我们的精神状态,有什么样的思想就会产生与之相适应的某种精神状态。如果我们心中总是怀着恐惧、疑虑、犹豫等等不良的思想,那么我们的精神状态就会变得畏缩、消沉、抑郁,快乐与健康就会离我们远去。
- 有目标,有追求
俗话说境由心生,把意念集中在你希望实现的目标上,就会引发你的行动,付出坚持与努力,你就会实现你的目标。
- 人人幸福,你才幸福
幸福与和谐是所有人的梦想,是我们全人类的梦想,共同的梦想把我们联系在一起。如果我们能够使其他人幸福快乐,我们自己才能感觉到真正的幸福。只为自己的幸福,只会使我们感到孤独、寂寞,幸福也会悄然离我们远去。
- 世界赠予我们的礼物
信念、执著、健康、爱、亲人、好友、知己等等,这些都是世界送给我们的礼物,把握这一切,我们就能得到真正的幸福。
- 有愿望,就会实现梦想
- 被火烧到的人才知道火的危害
一切的知识都来源于实践。如果让一个孩子读了许多关于描述狮子的书籍,却不让他接触真正的狮子,那么他仍然不能亲身感受狮子的危险。被火烧到的人才知道火的危害,只有在实践中我们才会获得真知。
- 思想是因,环境是果
只要付出努力,构建各种有益的思想,如勇气、激情、自信、坚持,我们所希望的结果就一定会出现。自然的法则公平而又合理,勤于思考的人总是得到得更多,懒于思考的人总是得到很少,每个人的收获与他的付出成正比。
- 空想与建设性的思想
思想是精神世界中最活跃、最有创造性的一分子,但是如果没有受到有意识的、系统化的训练与引导,它就不能有任何创造。空想和建设性思想的区别就在此,空想只是蹉跎光阴,浪费精力,而建设性思想却意味着智慧、活力,与现实完美地融为一体。
- 引力法则
降临到我们身上的一切际遇,都遵循引力法则。积极的观念吸引积极的观念,同时排挤消极的观念。因此,为了取得积极的结果,就必须改变你的思想,以勇气、自信、快乐等到积极的观念武装你的思想。当思想发生改变的时候,一切情景都会随之而改变。
- 发挥你的潜能
认识到宇宙精神的无限能量和无限智慧,我们就会意识到自身潜能的无限。
本课重点
1、科学家们获取知识、掌握真理的方法是什么?
——是归纳法。
2、我们何以确信这种方法的正确性呢?
——因为它成功地把我们的目光从虚无缥缈的天际带回具体细微的现实世界,通过有力的实验,而不是夸夸其谈来获得对世界的真知。
3、归纳法的依据是什么?
——利用手边的全部工具和资源,仔细、深入地分析每一个现象,在此基础上找到隐藏在它们背后的普遍法则。
4、使用归纳法会产生什么样的结果?
——驱逐人们头脑中的狭隘、固执与偏见,并以真理取而代之,使我们耳聪目明,头脑敏锐。
5、那些稀奇的、难以理解的现象是由神秘力量控制的吗?
——不是,自然法则统治一切,认识到这一点我们就可以解释一切。
6、怎样才能不被纷乱的表现现象所迷惑?
——在复杂的表面现象的背后,往往隐藏着简单优美的真理。只要你善于发现,掌握,就不再会感到头晕目眩。
7、世界赠予我们的礼物都有哪些?
——信念、执著、健康、爱、亲人、好友、知己等等。
8、为什么我们的思想可以理解一切自然法则与真理?
——因为宇宙精神就栖息在我们的潜意识当中,作用于我们的思想。
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Part Thirteen
Physical science is responsible for the marvelous age of invention in which we are now living, but spiritual science is now setting out on a career whose possibilities no one can foretell.
Spiritual science has previously been the football of the uneducated, the superstitious, the mystical, but men are now interested in definite methods and demonstrated facts only.
We have come to know that thinking is a spiritual process, that vision and imagination preceded action and event, that the day of the dreamer has come.
The following lines by Mr. Herbert Kaufman are interesting in this connection.
"They are the architects of greatness, their vision lies within their souls, they peer beyond the veils and mists of doubt and pierce the walls of unborn Time. The belted wheel, the trail of steel, the churning screw, are shuttles in the loom on which they weave their magic tapestries. Makers of Empire, they have fought for bigger things than crowns and higher seats than thrones. Your homes are set upon the land a dreamer found. The pictures on its walls are visions from a dreamer's soul. They are the chose few -- the blazers of the way. Walls crumble and Empires fall, the tidal wave sweeps from the sea and tears a fortress from its rocks. The rotting nations drop off from Time's bough, and only things the dreamer's make live on."
Part Thirteen which follows tells why the dreams of the dreamer come true. It explains the law of causation by which dreamers, inventors, authors, financiers, bring about the realization of their desires. It explains the law by which the thing pictured upon our mind eventually becomes our own.
PART THIRTEEN
1. It has been the tendency, and, as might be proved, a necessity for science to seek the explanation of everyday facts by a generalization of those others which are less frequent and form the exception. Thus does the eruption of the volcano manifest the heat which is continually at work in the interior of the earth and to which the latter owes much of her configuration.
2. Thus does the lightning reveal a subtle power constantly busy to produce changes in the inorganic world, and, as dead languages now seldom heard were once ruling among the nations, so does a giant tooth in Siberia, or a fossil in the depth of the earth, not only bear record of the evolution of past ages, but thereby explains to us the origin of the hills and valleys which we inhabit today.
3. In this way a generalization of facts which are rare, strange, or form the exception, has been the magnetic needle guiding to all the discoveries of inductive science.
4. This method is founded upon reason and experience and thereby destroyed superstition, precedent and conventionality.
5. It is almost three-hundred years since Lord Bacon recommended this method of study, to which the civilized nations owe the greater part of their prosperity and the more valuable part of their knowledge; purging the mind from narrow prejudices, denominated theories, more effectually than by the keenest irony; calling the attention of men from heaven to earth more successfully by surprising experiments than by the most forcible demonstration of their ignorance; educating the inventive faculties more powerfully by the near prospect of useful discoveries thrown open to all, than by talk of bringing to light the innate laws of our mind.
6. The method of Bacon has seized the spirit and aim of the great philosophers of Greece and carried them into effect by the new means of observation which another age offered; thus gradually revealing a wondrous field of knowledge in the infinite space of astronomy, in the microscopic egg of embryology, and the dim age of geology; disclosing an order of the pulse which the logic of Aristotle could never have unveiled, and analyzing into formerly unknown elements the material combinations which no dialectic of the scholastics could force apart.
7. It has lengthened life; it has mitigated pain; it has extinguished diseases; it has increased the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to the mariner; it has spanned great rivers with bridges of form unknown to our fathers; it has guided the thunderbolt from heaven to earth; it has lighted up night with the splendor of day; it has extended the range of human vision; it has multiplied the power of the human muscles; it has accelerated motion; it has annihilated distance; it has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices, all dispatch of business; it has enabled men to descend into the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of the earth.
8. This then is the true nature and scope of induction. But the greater the success which men have achieved in the inductive science, the more does the whole tenor of their teachings and example impress us with the necessity of observing carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at our command the individual facts before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
9. To ascertain the bearing of the spark drawn from the electric machine under every variety of circumstances, that we thus may be emboldened with Franklin to address, in the form of a kite, the question to the cloud about the nature of the lightning. To assure ourselves of the manner in which bodies fall with the exactness of a Galileo, that with Newton we may dare to ask the moon about the force that fastens it to the earth.
10. In short, by the value we set upon truth, by our hope in a steady and universal progress, not to permit a tyrannical prejudice to neglect or mutilate unwelcome facts, but to rear the superstructure of science upon the broad and unchangeable basis, of full attention paid to the most isolated as well as the most frequent phenomena.
11. An ever-increasing material may be collected by observation, but the accumulated facts are of very different value for the explanation of nature, and as we esteem most highly those useful qualities of men which are of the rarest occurrence, so does natural philosophy sift the facts and attach a pre-eminent importance to that striking class which cannot be accounted for by the usual and daily observation of life.
12. If then, we find that certain persons seem to possess unusual power, what are we to conclude? First, we may say, it is not so, which is simply an acknowledgment of our lack of information because every honest investigator admits that there are many strange and previously unaccountable phenomena constantly taking place. Those, however, who become acquainted with the creative power of thought, will no longer consider them unaccountable.
13. Second, we may say that they are the result of supernatural interference, but a scientific understanding of Natural Laws will convince us that there is nothing supernatural. Every phenomenon is the result of an accurate definite cause, and the cause is an immutable law or principle, which operates with invariable precision, whether the law is put into operation consciously or unconsciously.
14. Third, we may say that we are on "forbidden ground," that there are some things which we should not know. This objection was used against every advance in human knowledge. Every individual who ever advanced a new idea, whether a Columbus, a Darwin, a Galileo, a Fulton or an Emerson, was subjected to ridicule or persecution; so that this objection should receive no serious consideration; but, on the contrary, we should carefully consider every fact which is brought to our attention; by doing this we will more readily ascertain the law upon which it is based.
15. It will be found that the creative power of thought will explain every possible condition or experience, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
16. Thought will bring about conditions in correspondence with the predominant mental attitude. Therefore, if we fear disaster, as fear is a powerful form of thought, disaster will be the certain result of our thinking. It is this form of thought which frequently sweeps away the result of many years of toil and effort.
17. If we think of some form of material wealth we may secure it. By concentrated thought the required conditions will be brought about, and the proper effort put forth, which will result in bringing about the circumstances necessary to realize our desires; but we often find that when we secure the things we thought we wanted, they do not have the effect we expected. That is, the satisfaction is only temporary, or possibly is the reverse of what we expected.
18. What, then, is the proper method of procedure? What are we to think in order to secure what we really desire? What you and I desire, what we all desire, what every one is seeking, is Happiness and Harmony. If we can be truly happy we shall have everything the world can give. If we are happy ourselves we can make others happy.
19. But we cannot be happy unless we have, health, strength, congenial friends, pleasant environment, sufficient supply, not only to take care of our necessities but to provide for those comforts and luxuries to which we are entitled.
20. The old orthodox way of thinking was to be "a worm," to be satisfied with our portion whatever it is; but the modern idea is to know that we are entitled to the best of everything, that the "Father and I are one" and that the "Father" is the Universal Mind, the Creator, the Original Substance from which all things proceed.
21. Now admitting that this is all true in theory, and it has been taught for two thousand years, and is the essence of every system of Philosophy or Religion, how are we to make it practical in our lives? How are we to get the actual, tangible results here and now?
22. In the first place, we must put our knowledge into practice. Nothing can be accomplished in any other way. The athlete may read books and lessons on physical training all his life, but unless he begins to give out strength by actual work he will never receive any strength; he will eventually get exactly what he gives; but he will have to give it first. It is exactly the same with us; we will get exactly what we give, but we shall have to give it first. It will then return to us many fold, and the giving is simply a mental process, because thoughts are causes and conditions are effects; therefore in giving thoughts of courage, inspiration, health or help of any kind we are setting causes in motion which will bring about their effect.
23. Thought is a spiritual activity and is therefore creative, but make no mistake, thought will create nothing unless it is consciously, systematically, and constructively directed; and herein is the difference between idle thinking, which is simply a dissipation of effort, and constructive thinking, which means practically unlimited achievement.
24. We have found that everything we get comes to us by the Law of Attraction. A happy thought cannot exist in an unhappy consciousness; therefore the consciousness must change, and, as the consciousness changes, all conditions necessary to meet the changed consciousness must gradually change, in order to meet the requirements of the new situation.
25. In creating a Mental Image or an Ideal, we are projecting a thought into the Universal Substance from which all things are created. This Universal Substance is Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. Are we to inform the Omniscient as to the proper channel to be used to materialize our demand? Can the finite advise the Infinite? This is the cause of failure; of every failure. We recognize the Omnipresence of the Universal Substance, but we fail to appreciate the fact that this substance is not only Omnipresent, but is Omnipotent and Omniscient, and consequently will set causes in motion concerning which we may be entirely ignorant.
26. We can best conserve our interests by recognizing the Infinite Power and Infinite Wisdom of the Universal Mind, and in this way become a channel whereby the Infinite can bring about the realization of our desire. This means that recognition brings about realization, therefore for your exercise this week make use of the principle, recognize the fact that you are a part of the whole, and that a part must be the same in kind and quality as the whole; the only difference there can possibly by, is in degree.
27. When this tremendous fact begins to permeate your consciousness, when you really come into a realization of the fact that you (not your body, but the Ego), the "I," the spirit which thinks is an integral part of the great whole, that it is the same in substance, in quality, in kind, that the Creator could create nothing different from Himself, you will also be able to say, "The Father and I are one" and you will come into an understanding of the beauty, the grandeur, the transcendental opportunities which have been placed at your disposal.
Increase in me that wisdom Which discovers my truest interest, Strengthen my resolution To perform that which wisdom dictates.
Franklin
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Study Questions with Answers
121. What is the method by which natural philosophers obtain and apply their knowledge?
To observe individual facts carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at their command, before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
122. How may we be certain that this method is correct?
By not permitting a tyrannical prejudice to neglect or mutilate unwelcome facts.
123. What classes of facts are esteemed most highly?
Those which cannot be accounted for by the usual daily observation of life.
124. Upon what is this principle founded?
Upon reason and experience.
125. What does it destroy?
Superstition, precedent and conventionality.
126. How have these laws been discovered?
By a generalization of facts which are uncommon, rare, strange and form the exception.
27. How may we account for much of the strange and heretofore unexplainable phenomena which is constantly taking place?
By the creative power of thought.
128. Why is this so?
Because when we learn of a fact we can be sure that it is the result of a certain definite cause and that this cause will operate with invariable precision.
129. What is the result of this knowledge?
It will explain the cause of every possible condition, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
130. How will our best interest be conserved?
By a recognition of the fact that a knowledge of the creative nature of thought puts us in touch with Infinite power.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Part Thirteen
Physical science is responsible for the marvelous age of invention in which we are now living, but spiritual science is now setting out on a career whose possibilities no one can foretell.
Spiritual science has previously been the football of the uneducated, the superstitious, the mystical, but men are now interested in definite methods and demonstrated facts only.
We have come to know that thinking is a spiritual process, that vision and imagination preceded action and event, that the day of the dreamer has come.
The following lines by Mr. Herbert Kaufman are interesting in this connection.
"They are the architects of greatness, their vision lies within their souls, they peer beyond the veils and mists of doubt and pierce the walls of unborn Time. The belted wheel, the trail of steel, the churning screw, are shuttles in the loom on which they weave their magic tapestries. Makers of Empire, they have fought for bigger things than crowns and higher seats than thrones. Your homes are set upon the land a dreamer found. The pictures on its walls are visions from a dreamer's soul. They are the chose few -- the blazers of the way. Walls crumble and Empires fall, the tidal wave sweeps from the sea and tears a fortress from its rocks. The rotting nations drop off from Time's bough, and only things the dreamer's make live on."
Part Thirteen which follows tells why the dreams of the dreamer come true. It explains the law of causation by which dreamers, inventors, authors, financiers, bring about the realization of their desires. It explains the law by which the thing pictured upon our mind eventually becomes our own.
PART THIRTEEN
1. It has been the tendency, and, as might be proved, a necessity for science to seek the explanation of everyday facts by a generalization of those others which are less frequent and form the exception. Thus does the eruption of the volcano manifest the heat which is continually at work in the interior of the earth and to which the latter owes much of her configuration.
2. Thus does the lightning reveal a subtle power constantly busy to produce changes in the inorganic world, and, as dead languages now seldom heard were once ruling among the nations, so does a giant tooth in Siberia, or a fossil in the depth of the earth, not only bear record of the evolution of past ages, but thereby explains to us the origin of the hills and valleys which we inhabit today.
3. In this way a generalization of facts which are rare, strange, or form the exception, has been the magnetic needle guiding to all the discoveries of inductive science.
4. This method is founded upon reason and experience and thereby destroyed superstition, precedent and conventionality.
5. It is almost three-hundred years since Lord Bacon recommended this method of study, to which the civilized nations owe the greater part of their prosperity and the more valuable part of their knowledge; purging the mind from narrow prejudices, denominated theories, more effectually than by the keenest irony; calling the attention of men from heaven to earth more successfully by surprising experiments than by the most forcible demonstration of their ignorance; educating the inventive faculties more powerfully by the near prospect of useful discoveries thrown open to all, than by talk of bringing to light the innate laws of our mind.
6. The method of Bacon has seized the spirit and aim of the great philosophers of Greece and carried them into effect by the new means of observation which another age offered; thus gradually revealing a wondrous field of knowledge in the infinite space of astronomy, in the microscopic egg of embryology, and the dim age of geology; disclosing an order of the pulse which the logic of Aristotle could never have unveiled, and analyzing into formerly unknown elements the material combinations which no dialectic of the scholastics could force apart.
7. It has lengthened life; it has mitigated pain; it has extinguished diseases; it has increased the fertility of the soil; it has given new securities to the mariner; it has spanned great rivers with bridges of form unknown to our fathers; it has guided the thunderbolt from heaven to earth; it has lighted up night with the splendor of day; it has extended the range of human vision; it has multiplied the power of the human muscles; it has accelerated motion; it has annihilated distance; it has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly offices, all dispatch of business; it has enabled men to descend into the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of the earth.
8. This then is the true nature and scope of induction. But the greater the success which men have achieved in the inductive science, the more does the whole tenor of their teachings and example impress us with the necessity of observing carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at our command the individual facts before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
9. To ascertain the bearing of the spark drawn from the electric machine under every variety of circumstances, that we thus may be emboldened with Franklin to address, in the form of a kite, the question to the cloud about the nature of the lightning. To assure ourselves of the manner in which bodies fall with the exactness of a Galileo, that with Newton we may dare to ask the moon about the force that fastens it to the earth.
10. In short, by the value we set upon truth, by our hope in a steady and universal progress, not to permit a tyrannical prejudice to neglect or mutilate unwelcome facts, but to rear the superstructure of science upon the broad and unchangeable basis, of full attention paid to the most isolated as well as the most frequent phenomena.
11. An ever-increasing material may be collected by observation, but the accumulated facts are of very different value for the explanation of nature, and as we esteem most highly those useful qualities of men which are of the rarest occurrence, so does natural philosophy sift the facts and attach a pre-eminent importance to that striking class which cannot be accounted for by the usual and daily observation of life.
12. If then, we find that certain persons seem to possess unusual power, what are we to conclude? First, we may say, it is not so, which is simply an acknowledgment of our lack of information because every honest investigator admits that there are many strange and previously unaccountable phenomena constantly taking place. Those, however, who become acquainted with the creative power of thought, will no longer consider them unaccountable.
13. Second, we may say that they are the result of supernatural interference, but a scientific understanding of Natural Laws will convince us that there is nothing supernatural. Every phenomenon is the result of an accurate definite cause, and the cause is an immutable law or principle, which operates with invariable precision, whether the law is put into operation consciously or unconsciously.
14. Third, we may say that we are on "forbidden ground," that there are some things which we should not know. This objection was used against every advance in human knowledge. Every individual who ever advanced a new idea, whether a Columbus, a Darwin, a Galileo, a Fulton or an Emerson, was subjected to ridicule or persecution; so that this objection should receive no serious consideration; but, on the contrary, we should carefully consider every fact which is brought to our attention; by doing this we will more readily ascertain the law upon which it is based.
15. It will be found that the creative power of thought will explain every possible condition or experience, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
16. Thought will bring about conditions in correspondence with the predominant mental attitude. Therefore, if we fear disaster, as fear is a powerful form of thought, disaster will be the certain result of our thinking. It is this form of thought which frequently sweeps away the result of many years of toil and effort.
17. If we think of some form of material wealth we may secure it. By concentrated thought the required conditions will be brought about, and the proper effort put forth, which will result in bringing about the circumstances necessary to realize our desires; but we often find that when we secure the things we thought we wanted, they do not have the effect we expected. That is, the satisfaction is only temporary, or possibly is the reverse of what we expected.
18. What, then, is the proper method of procedure? What are we to think in order to secure what we really desire? What you and I desire, what we all desire, what every one is seeking, is Happiness and Harmony. If we can be truly happy we shall have everything the world can give. If we are happy ourselves we can make others happy.
19. But we cannot be happy unless we have, health, strength, congenial friends, pleasant environment, sufficient supply, not only to take care of our necessities but to provide for those comforts and luxuries to which we are entitled.
20. The old orthodox way of thinking was to be "a worm," to be satisfied with our portion whatever it is; but the modern idea is to know that we are entitled to the best of everything, that the "Father and I are one" and that the "Father" is the Universal Mind, the Creator, the Original Substance from which all things proceed.
21. Now admitting that this is all true in theory, and it has been taught for two thousand years, and is the essence of every system of Philosophy or Religion, how are we to make it practical in our lives? How are we to get the actual, tangible results here and now?
22. In the first place, we must put our knowledge into practice. Nothing can be accomplished in any other way. The athlete may read books and lessons on physical training all his life, but unless he begins to give out strength by actual work he will never receive any strength; he will eventually get exactly what he gives; but he will have to give it first. It is exactly the same with us; we will get exactly what we give, but we shall have to give it first. It will then return to us many fold, and the giving is simply a mental process, because thoughts are causes and conditions are effects; therefore in giving thoughts of courage, inspiration, health or help of any kind we are setting causes in motion which will bring about their effect.
23. Thought is a spiritual activity and is therefore creative, but make no mistake, thought will create nothing unless it is consciously, systematically, and constructively directed; and herein is the difference between idle thinking, which is simply a dissipation of effort, and constructive thinking, which means practically unlimited achievement.
24. We have found that everything we get comes to us by the Law of Attraction. A happy thought cannot exist in an unhappy consciousness; therefore the consciousness must change, and, as the consciousness changes, all conditions necessary to meet the changed consciousness must gradually change, in order to meet the requirements of the new situation.
25. In creating a Mental Image or an Ideal, we are projecting a thought into the Universal Substance from which all things are created. This Universal Substance is Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. Are we to inform the Omniscient as to the proper channel to be used to materialize our demand? Can the finite advise the Infinite? This is the cause of failure; of every failure. We recognize the Omnipresence of the Universal Substance, but we fail to appreciate the fact that this substance is not only Omnipresent, but is Omnipotent and Omniscient, and consequently will set causes in motion concerning which we may be entirely ignorant.
26. We can best conserve our interests by recognizing the Infinite Power and Infinite Wisdom of the Universal Mind, and in this way become a channel whereby the Infinite can bring about the realization of our desire. This means that recognition brings about realization, therefore for your exercise this week make use of the principle, recognize the fact that you are a part of the whole, and that a part must be the same in kind and quality as the whole; the only difference there can possibly by, is in degree.
27. When this tremendous fact begins to permeate your consciousness, when you really come into a realization of the fact that you (not your body, but the Ego), the "I," the spirit which thinks is an integral part of the great whole, that it is the same in substance, in quality, in kind, that the Creator could create nothing different from Himself, you will also be able to say, "The Father and I are one" and you will come into an understanding of the beauty, the grandeur, the transcendental opportunities which have been placed at your disposal.
Increase in me that wisdom Which discovers my truest interest, Strengthen my resolution To perform that which wisdom dictates.
Franklin
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Study Questions with Answers
121. What is the method by which natural philosophers obtain and apply their knowledge?
To observe individual facts carefully, patiently, accurately, with all the instruments and resources at their command, before venturing upon a statement of general laws.
122. How may we be certain that this method is correct?
By not permitting a tyrannical prejudice to neglect or mutilate unwelcome facts.
123. What classes of facts are esteemed most highly?
Those which cannot be accounted for by the usual daily observation of life.
124. Upon what is this principle founded?
Upon reason and experience.
125. What does it destroy?
Superstition, precedent and conventionality.
126. How have these laws been discovered?
By a generalization of facts which are uncommon, rare, strange and form the exception.
27. How may we account for much of the strange and heretofore unexplainable phenomena which is constantly taking place?
By the creative power of thought.
128. Why is this so?
Because when we learn of a fact we can be sure that it is the result of a certain definite cause and that this cause will operate with invariable precision.
129. What is the result of this knowledge?
It will explain the cause of every possible condition, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
130. How will our best interest be conserved?
By a recognition of the fact that a knowledge of the creative nature of thought puts us in touch with Infinite power.