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Man has a mentality. He has a spirit in the sense that the Spirit is individualized through him, but his spirit is not separate from God, for God as man, in man, is man. Man is individual while God is universal. The Universal individualizes Itself in the individual. “The highest God and the innermost God is one God.” This One includes man.

Man is an individualized center of Divine Thought and through him the Original Thinker is finding a fresh starting point for Its creative power. Therefore, without violating universal or natural laws, the mind of man steps in to specialize or make personal use of them.

Man, then, is given power over his own life. He cannot alter the laws of nature, but he can so alter his relationship to them that that which had bound him may now free him. He has been given the prerogative of spontaneous thinking. He has been given the ability to initiate a new chain of causation. He announces his own activity. This activity is an activity of the Divine Mind operating through him. It is the original creative Cause doing something new through him.

There is but one Mind and we use It. The laws of nature are universal. Our use of them is individual and personal. This is the secret of spiritual mind practice. Our thought is operated on by a universal creativity which is infinite in its capacity to accomplish. Thus, in taking thought we do not force anything, we merely decide what thought to follow, knowing that the result is automatic.

As all deep spiritual thinkers have announced, and rightly, we soon come to realize that wherever the individual will is contrary to, or in opposition to, this universal coordinating will, it detaches itself from the source of its power, it goes alone and soon becomes exhausted. On the other hand, wherever the individual will links itself up with the universal harmony, it becomes a spontaneous proclamation of that harmony, now individualized.

In spiritual practice we follow the stream of the individual life back to the original Source from which it emerged and in which it still lives, moves, and has its being. This is an important part of our treatment, to connect the Universal with the individual, and the individual with the Universal.

Instead of denying that God is personal to each, we should emphasize such personalness. It is one of the chief cornerstones of this spiritual philosophy. Each individual life is a unique expression of the universal Wholeness. No two lives can or ought to be alike. The one universal Life flows through everything. We give individual expression to It.

Life can do for us only what It does through us. We are like an artist who sets up his canvas on a shore, wishing to paint a marine scene. Because he is an individual, he will interpret the scene in the light of his own consciousness. He might think, “I want seagulls in this picture. I want a boat in the distance. I want children playing on the shore. And through it all I want a great sense of peace, calm, and beauty.”

He is giving individual expression to this particular scene. He meditates on the beauty and the peace he wishes to portray and adds the personal thoughts that come to him. No other person ever did or ever can catch the same expression that he does on this particular canvas. It will be unique. We are always specializing the Law of cause and effect for some purpose. Mostly we are doing this unconsciously. Now we must learn to bring our thoughts and purposes into line with the original harmony. In doing this we should not be afraid that we are usurping the Divine Will any more than a farmer would be afraid that he is going contrary to the laws of nature or the will of God when he decides to plant corn instead of cotton. The necessity of choosing is ordained by the very nature of our being, and we cannot escape it.

We are at liberty to choose what manner of life we shall live. We should feel that in this choice we are backed by all the will, all the purpose, and all the law in the universe. Our reliance is on this law and order. It is the creative agency of all life and at the same time our use of it is personal and individual.

Here is all the freedom one could ask for and all the freedom that the Divine Mind itself could possibly have given us—the freedom to act as an individual, the freedom to give full rein to our creative imagination, the freedom to do this, at least temporarily, in such a way as to produce discord instead of harmony, and more important, the freedom to produce harmony instead of discord.

Have we enough conviction to turn from negative conditions and mentally contemplate their opposites? Can we turn from poverty and want to the acceptance of abundance? Can we turn from sickness to a belief in health? Can we turn from unhappiness to happiness? Can we shut out discord long enough to contemplate harmony? And have we the courage to proceed on this basis?

The effective practitioner in this science has the will to try, the courage to make the attempt, the faith to believe in himself because he has confidence in the Law of Good. The simplicity of this conviction is enhanced when he realizes he has nothing to change outside himself. •

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