Building on the Work of Our Founders

In the July issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine, PEN Award-winning historian and author Mitch Horowitz delivers this challenge: “We can focus on rearranging our sock drawers,” he says, “or we can storm heaven.”

And he asks, “If you’re not willing to storm heaven, then why concern yourself with religious or philosophical ideas?”

Horowitz is a respected voice espousing and unveiling New Thought philosophy in main-stream media and in his work at publisher Tarcher/Penguin. In the July magazine, he posits that what we need are good ideas, not new ideas. He acknowledges that New Thought’s founders followed a deep, studied path. They backed up their work with serious study and research.

“We have to be courageous enough to put the question on the table as to whether we have all the answers to our thought system: Do we live under one mental super law or multiple laws and forces, of which the mind is one?” he asks. “This kind of inquiry is why the New Thought movement exists.”

Boldness, bravery and intellectual fearlessness — these are the qualities Horowitz insists New Thoughters need if we are to storm heaven.

To Be an American

The following is an excerpt from Rev. Masando Hiraoka’s monthly column in the July issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine.

Our country is growing, maturing and dealing with the complexities of identity that arise in a place that was built by, and continues to be shaped by, cultures from around the world.

Through a spiritual lens, we can appreciate the inherent divinity within each one of these cultures as well as the absolute beauty of living in a place where American identity is truly diverse. We can expand our collective consciousness of being an American to include those who may not look like most pop phenoms or movie stars.

Through this thinking, we allow the beauty of God to shine through us all and penetrate into what we see when we see an American.

Use Your Social Media Time Wisely

We all fall prey to our social media accounts. We may check our Facebook page at lunchtime, give a surreptitious glance to our Instagram account or try to keep up with Twitter feeds from our favorite celebrities.

According to David Allen on Bloomberg, the most obvious issue with social media is whether your time spent is useful to your life or whether it is simply a “sinkhole of attractive distraction.” He suggests that the difference depends on why you’re doing it. “It’s an important distinction to make for yourself, because focus is probably your greatest asset that you can control. You must be judicious about where you place it and what you let grab it, thus reducing your effectiveness.”

From a tactical, practical perspective, Allen suggests there are three main reasons social media can serve you well.

1.  “You’re an incorrigible extrovert, and you just love to schmooze.” Allen says that if this description fits you, then social media may be “right up your alley. You simply need to be careful with balance,” he says.
2. “You have an agenda that is supported by this kind of connection.” For example, if you’re building a brand, then social media is part of the strategies involved. Businesses and individuals must critically assess how social media supports or detracts from the missions central to their journeys.
3. “You’re researching.” As Allen says, “You’re intrigued, maybe a little intimidated by the early adopters and the popularity in the media about these media, and you’re curious about what all this is about and want to find out whether and how you should engage.” He acknowledges that this probably describes most of us.

Finally, he says, “I’ve got to participate in order to really know what’s going to pay off and what isn’t.” Good advice for so many paths along the way.

To read more of Allen’s analysis, visit www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2009-03-10/time-management-in-the-age-of-social-mediabusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice.

Life Expresses Itself Through You
— Ernest Holmes

When you say, “I know that the Divine Intelligence is attracting certain conditions to me,” and when you have affirmed your union with good, you can go about the business of everyday life with no sense of anxiety, knowing that the law of good is working for you.

Faith is the most important thing in your life. It is impossible to conceive the grandeur of what it can do. The whole mental scope must be broadened and deepened, the whole expectancy must reach out to more, the whole imagination must lend its feeling to grateful acceptance and joyous recognition of the Power greater than you are.

Life wishes to make the gift because in so doing It is flowing into Its own self-expression. You might say that gravity wishes to hold an object in place because this is its nature. As a matter of fact, it cannot help doing so. …

You wish to reap joy, happiness, love, friendship, health, harmony and success. Could you expect to keep your mind filled with such thoughts for yourself unless it were filled with similar thoughts for others? Of course not. This would not make sense. … You have a right to expect that what you wish for others will be returned to you through others.

From “Faith Means Freedom” by visionary Ernest Holmes, as heard on his “This Thing Called Life” radio show on Sunday, July 2, 1950.