We begin the growth experience through the awareness that all is cause and effect. Ideas are the cause of everything. The teachings of Ernest Holmes greatly promoted the concept that spiritually sound ideas are instigators of good effects. His textbook, The Science of Mind, is a great resource. Further, Holmes wrote many other books that are shorter and simpler to understand. His books, along with those of many other New Thought personalities, are highly useful to discover one’s approach to having a Spiritual Pathway to awareness. Other causes are felt and expressed through learning how to think about the real world. Really the world is whole, perfect, and complete. So is every person. However, this perfection is difficult to discern outwardly; it does not appear to be true. Wars, disease, poverty, crime, abuse, and other difficulties seem to make up the world we know. Yet behind all of these disappointing conditions, there is a perfect person within everyone waiting to be recognized. Those persons who believe that there is more to them than the appearances of blame, shame, failure, and unrest are in for a refreshing awakening when they discover their true nature. The real world is in the awareness and expression of the untapped persons we all are. Everyone is able to do anything. All that we need to do is to become involved in a support system that turns away from all experiences that have felt harmful. A little more than 100 years ago, an Englishman lecturing at the University of Edinburgh taught that the Spirit of Good is everywhere present. His presentation brought acclamations of his ideas by the foremost American psychologist of that time, William James. Thomas Troward was that speaker. He presented the conception that Spirit is not the opposite of matter, but rather the cause of the things of matter. He told people that as they become aware that the spirit of every person is unlimited in what it can do, all problems will be resolvable. To Troward, matter meant that the energy of spirit expresses in and through the choices of individuals. But until people know this, they ignorantly cause undesirable things to happen through faulty thinking. This means that as we learn to think with clarity, direction, and awareness, we experience what we truly desire. We then express a greatly improved world. In concert with Troward, consider that Spirit needs to be expressed, but that matter has no needs. This is because Spirit is causative of all that happens with matter. Matter is the effect of Spirit’s contemplation. It matters not what exists because all matter can be changed. Spirit cannot be changed because it is cause. To understand the last paragraph is to adjust one’s life in all the particulars one chooses to change. But some persons insist that we cannot change anything. Dr. Royal asks of them, “Why do you simultaneously explain that nothing is permanent and that change is the only permanent thing?” Every thing appears to be either changeable or unchangeable, because of how we react to our circumstances. To react negatively to anything that someone else does or says is to lessen our expression of spirituality. How then are we to relate to others? It is through responding to them without reacting negatively to what they say or do that we can definitely change the experience we have of them. These empowerments are definite and real. We all react or respond to other people, to places, and to every thing every time we have an experience, which either feels good to us or does not feel so good. Until we have ventured awhile on our Spiritual Pathways, we often react negatively and then wonder why life did not feel good all of the time. People have frequently told us that life doesn’t get better than what our experiences have indicated. Nevertheless, life is as good as we can believe. Our beliefs in better livingness lift us up in our experiences as we ascend the mountain called life. How can we tell when we are reacting negatively? When we think about others, disliking them for what they do, or when we take advantage of another, we are reacting with shades of negative thought. We are capable of responding to others with the personal assurance that nothing they have said or done has or could hurt us. Therefore, we do not base our behavior on trying to cope with life, but upon the certainty that solutions abound wherever we are. The ability to respond in a positive manner is true responsibility and it contains no hurt and no vengeance. We can learn how to do this regularly. Spiritual Pathways are practical. Typically they assist us to function with confidence, wisdom, and love. This happens with us through our allowing the Supreme Intelligence to move through us and act as us no matter what others may do. This creates a flow with life: the flow causes goodwill through the ease it brings to everything.
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