Our Divine Nature Is Absolute Inclusion

Rev. Dr. Jesse Jennings states that Science of Mind practitioners share a familiar prayer-treatment opening: “There is one life. That life is God. That life is all the life there is.”

“The first sentence strikes a note,” he writes, “and the last one pulls it into a chord: All the life there is is one. Nature is one.”

Writing in the August 2022 Science of Mind magazine, Jennings says, “The purpose for this in prayer is to unify ourselves with a realm in which no perceived problem exists independently of its remedy. Introducing an upswell of feeling around what we desire locates that desire and its corresponding form in the limitless field of possibility, then sort of pushes it outward to take shape in our material experience — to show up as fact.”

He points out the one thing divine nature cannot do: Stop being itself. Not even for a moment. “Nature preexists us, so our field of play is our beliefs and the perceptions shaping them. For instance, I believe — because I have so often and intensely perceived it — that diversity and inclusion are wonderful, kind strategies, causing people to feel genuinely welcomed and respected among other people, as some often haven't been. But you and I don't cause diversity; we form diverse spaces.”

He adds, "Deliberate conscious inclusion likewise mirrors the fact that all life exists within a single divine housing. All are already included by right of having emanated from one divine source. It's the human implementation of inclusion in everyday social practice for which we are all responsible.”

How to Reconnect to Nature

Earth, water, fire, air, space. Our bodies comprise all nature’s elements, so it's only logical spending time in nature reacquaints us both with the natural world and with ourselves.

In the August 2022 Science of Mind magazine, Swati Singh suggests four simple ways to reconnect to nature.

1. Tree-bathing: Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, is a Japanese healing therapy. Take a leisurely walk in the forest or a park, pausing to observe and allow all your senses to feel nature around you. “The simple act of walking for 15 minutes beneath the trees is believed to increase connectedness to nature, attention capacity, vitality and the ability to reflect on a life problem,” Singh writes.
2. Go barefoot: Walking barefoot on any natural surface — soil, sand and grass — is called earthing or grounding. A study published in 2011 found that earthing changed the electrical activity in the brain, as measured by electroencephalograms.
3. Gardening: Studies have established the many benefits of gardening, perhaps including creating a spiritual bond with nature.
4. Observe: Listen to the sounds around you. Feel the wind in your hair, notice the different shapes of leaves, understand nature's rhythm.

Reflection on Summer

By Ernest Holmes

We are the guests of an invisible Host whose presence we feel and whose form we shall see when our eyes are opened to the fact that It clothes Itself in innumerable forms. It is our business to unite, not to divide; to include, not to exclude; to accept and not to renounce.

Seasonal Affirmation: I know that which I am is God in me, as me. In this knowledge I know my spirit is free of all limitations. I know my mind knows this truth about myself. My thoughts now affirm my Divine Source. My thoughts are free of ideas of limitation, and they cease hindering the outflow of the indwelling Presence.

As I now know and declare the truth of my real nature, there is manifest in my thinking and experience the perfection and wholeness of God that rightfully belong to me. I am free with the freedom of God, and all things in my life are good.

— Excerpted from “A Holmes Reader for All Seasons.”