Practice—Knowing the Truth
Ernest Holmes

All our study and concern with theories is only that we may prove and practice them. Practice, then, is the art and the act and the science (art because it is harmonious, a thing of perfect harmony; act because it is an aggressive, conscious thing; science because it is subject to exact laws) of bringing our thought consciously and subjectively to absolutely believe and accept and embody statements and declarations which affirm the great realizations of spiritual perception as now present in fact, in experience, and manifestation.

Practice is not suggestion. We would not suggest that God be omnipotent. Practice is not a rite of concentration, because we could not concentrate God. We do not try to concentrate livingness; we try to center our attention upon it, that we may see that it is concentrated already. Practice is knowing the truth that the same pure Intelligence—the volition and will that created the universe—is incarnated in us right now. The spiritual mind treatment becomes a statement of our belief, an affirmation of our investigation, and the specific things we accept in our treatment externalize in exact mathematical ratio as the beliefs which deny them are dissolved from our consciousness.

We are not religiously superstitious. We say this: There is such a thing as Spirit. Spirit is intelligent; It is all-powerful. Spirit is really here; It does work, but It can only work for us as we let It. We only let It as we believe and embody It. Therefore, we will practice our belief. In such degree as we do this, we find that we are practicing self-realization, and this is the most remarkable thing that has been discovered: the power of spiritual thought force over apparent material resistance. The kingdom of heaven cometh not by external observation, but by internal recognition.

Excerpted from Think Your Troubles Away by Ernest Holmes, Tarcher/Penguin publisher.

2011 Asilomar Experience: The Journey Home

Take The Journey Home with us this summer at the Asilomar Conference Center for a powerful two-week experience July 31 through August 13.

Join us for one week or two weeks as we come together in community, celebration, and love—all set against the beautiful Northern California Pacific Coastline. Each week will be filled with morning and evening general sessions, daily workshops, tai chi, yoga, meditation, chapel sessions, sunset services, late night activities, New Thought music, prayer room, treatment room for work with a practitioner, bodywork room, labyrinth, vendor village, and bookstore. The conference will also have a full program for kids and teens, so you can bring the whole family!

Registration packages include access to all conference workshops as well as general sessions and spaces, three meals a day, and housing at the Asilomar Conference Center.

For more information or to register, please click here.

More of the Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman

Beandrea Davis’s feature “Connecting the Inner and the Outer: The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman,” in the June issue of Science of Mind magazine, captured the power and relevance of Thurman’s teaching. In his inspirational message, “Joy beyond Pain,” Howard Thurman discusses the gift of God in man: the power we can access to transcend conditions that seem overwhelming. 

Click here to hear Howard Thurman’s message “Joy beyond Pain,” or to watch Howard Thurman discuss the nature of the religious experience.