A Step that Changed the World

In a year defined by history as chaotic, war ravaged, divisive, one step captivated people worldwide. As Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon on July 20, 1969, time briefly stood still. As writer Holli Sharp says, “It was the stuff of outlandish science fiction from the most brilliant minds of the time. They saw the vision and brought it into form one step, one lesson, at a time. And it was a hard-earned victory.”

In a moment filled with wonderment and apprehension in equal measure, Commander Neil Armstrong sent chills down the world’s collective spine — an otherworldly broadcast to an estimated 600 million people across our blue marble.

The public had waited tenuously for three days since Apollo 11 lifted off with Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins (the expert pilot left alone to navigate command module Columbia).

“Houston, Tranquility Base here,” Armstrong’s words came through confidently. “The Eagle has landed.” “Millions breathed a sigh of relief that afternoon,” Sharp writes. “Tears of pride and disbelief swelled in the eyes of onlookers. What would they discover when they opened the doors of the lunar module?”

In the July 2019 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine, Sharp takes us on a journey through space exploration before and since Armstrong uttered those famous words: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

“Space: It will continue to astound and impress us, mystify us, require us to look deeply in our hearts and minds for ways to make our precious lives count,” she writes. “As Vietnamese monk Thích Nhất Hạnh says, ‘Every breath you take is a gift to you from the universe.’ We can count on that — looking up at the night sky and trusting that an unfathomable intelligence knows what It’s doing. Isn’t that what faith is all about?”

The New Freedom

— Ernest Holmes

In honor of America’s Independence Day and of the freedom of peoples worldwide, the July 2019 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine includes the following thoughts from Ernest Holmes on the nature of freedom.

We are today thinking of liberty, of the meaning of freedom. What is freedom, and what is liberty? That is the question before the world today as never before. Probably there has never been a time in our entire history when so many persons were asking this question, so earnestly: What does it mean to be free? Does freedom mean that everyone shall do exactly as he wishes? Or does it mean that everyone shall have as much liberty as is consistent with the best good of all persons?

It seems to me necessary to assume that the Laws of God are laws of liberty; that wherever there is any restriction, that restriction does not emanate from the Law of God but rather from our restricted use of the Law of God — I think it would be impossible to draw any other conclusion.

I think it is equally necessary to assume that whatever the Law of God is, It is something which, if we go with It, will automatically carry us on in our evolution, irresistibly, and if we go contrary to It, will automatically push us back until we approach It in a manner consistent with Its nature. …

There are but two fundamental principles in nature. One is unity of the whole; the next is the variety, the diversity, the manifold expressions of that unity. Any system of thought — religious, political, economic — that contradicts either one or both of those is as certain to fail as that tomorrow is certain to follow today. That means that freedom — liberty — is not license.

Liberty means providing the greatest possible chance for every man to be free, giving him the greatest background for freedom, and also permitting him to go ahead and enjoy as much of that freedom as he can.

— Excerpted from “The New Freedom” by Ernest Holmes.