Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit

Trine Ralph Waldo

Description

In The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit, New Thought expert Ralph Waldo Trine speaks of those "moments in the lives of all of us when we catch glimpses of a life -- our life -- that is infinitely beyond the life we are now living." This volume is packed with profound insights and practical tips designed to help readers break past the self-imposed limits holding them back and live a richer, more satisfying life.

Sujets

• Popular psychology

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781775414582
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE HIGHER POWERS OF MIND AND SPIRIT
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RALPH WALDO TRINE
 
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The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit From a 1918 edition.
ISBN 978-1-775414-58-2
© 2009 THE FLOATING PRESS.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike.
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Contents
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Foreword I - The Silent, Subtle Building Forces of Mind and Spirit II - Soul, Mind, Body—The Subconscious Mind that Interrelates Them III - The Way Mind Through the Subconscious Mind Builds Body IV - The Powerful Aid of the Mind in Rebuilding Body—How Body Helps Mind V - Thought as a Force in Daily Living VI - Jesus the Supreme Exponent of the Inner Forces and Powers: His People'sReligion and Their Condition VII - The Divine Rule in the Mind and Heart: The Unessentials We Drop—TheSpirit Abides VIII - If We Seek the Essence of His Revelation, and the Purpose of His Life IX - His Purpose of Lifting Up, Energising, Beautifying, and Saving theEntire Life: The Saving of the Soul is Secondary; But Follows X - Some Methods of Attainment XI - Some Methods of Expression XII - The World War—Its Meaning and Its Lessons for Us XIII - Our Sole Agency of International Peace, and International Concord XIV - The World's Balance-Wheel Endnotes
Foreword
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We are all dwellers in two kingdoms, the inner kingdom, the kingdom ofthe mind and spirit, and the outer kingdom, that of the body and thephysical universe about us. In the former, the kingdom of the unseen,lie the silent, subtle forces that are continually determining, and withexact precision, the conditions of the latter.
To strike the right balance in life is one of the supreme essentials ofall successful living. We must work, for we must have bread. We requireother things than bread. They are not only valuable, comfortable, butnecessary. It is a dumb, stolid being, however, who does not realizethat life consists of more than these. They spell mere existence, notabundance, fullness of life.
We can become so absorbed in making a living that we have no time forliving . To be capable and efficient in one's work is a splendid thing;but efficiency can be made a great mechanical device that robs life offar more than it returns it. A nation can become so possessed, and evenobsessed, with the idea of power and grandeur through efficiency andorganisation, that it becomes a great machine and robs its people of thefiner fruits of life that spring from a wisely subordinated andcoordinated individuality. Here again it is the wise balance thatdetermines all.
Our prevailing thoughts and emotions determine, and with absoluteaccuracy, the prevailing conditions of our outward, material life, andlikewise the prevailing conditions of our bodily life. Would we have anyconditions different in the latter we must then make the necessarychanges in the former. The silent, subtle forces of mind and spirit,ceaselessly at work, are continually moulding these outward and thesebodily conditions.
He makes a fundamental error who thinks that these are mere sentimentalthings in life, vague and intangible. They are, as great numbers are nowrealising, the great and elemental things in life, the only things thatin the end really count. The normal man or woman can never find real andabiding satisfaction in the mere possessions, the mere accessories oflife. There is an eternal something within that forbids it. That is thereason why, of late years, so many of our big men of affairs, so many invarious public walks in life, likewise many women of splendid equipmentand with large possessions, have been and are turning so eagerly to thevery things we are considering. To be a mere huckster, many of our bigmen are finding, cannot bring satisfaction, even though his operationsrun into millions in the year.
And happy is the young man or the young woman who, while the bulk oflife still lies ahead, realises that it is the things of the mind andthe spirit—the fundamental things in life—that really count; that herelie the forces that are to be understood and to be used in moulding theeveryday conditions and affairs of life; that the springs of life areall from within, that as is the inner so always and inevitably will bethe outer.
To present certain facts that may be conducive to the realisation ofthis more abundant life is the author's purpose and plan.
R. W. T.
Sunnybrae Farm,Croton-on-Hudson,New York.
I - The Silent, Subtle Building Forces of Mind and Spirit
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There are moments in the lives of all of us when we catch glimpses of alife—our life—that is infinitely beyond the life we are now living. Werealise that we are living below our possibilities. We long for therealisation of the life that we feel should be.
Instinctively we perceive that there are within us powers and forcesthat we are making but inadequate use of, and others that we arescarcely using at all. Practical metaphysics, a more simplified andconcrete psychology, well-known laws of mental and spiritual science,confirm us in this conclusion.
Our own William James, he who so splendidly related psychology,philosophy, and even religion, to life in a supreme degree, honoured hiscalling and did a tremendous service for all mankind, when he soclearly developed the fact that we have within us powers and forces thatwe are making all too little use of—that we have within us greatreservoirs of power that we have as yet scarcely tapped.
The men and the women who are awake to these inner helps—thesedirecting, moulding, and sustaining powers and forces that belong to therealm of mind and spirit—are never to be found among those who ask: Islife worth the living? For them life has been multiplied two, ten, ahundred fold.
It is not ordinarily because we are not interested in these things, forinstinctively we feel them of value; and furthermore our observationsand experiences confirm us in this thought. The pressing cares of theeveryday life—in the great bulk of cases, the bread and butter problemof life, which is after all the problem of ninety-nine out of everyhundred—all seem to conspire to keep us from giving the time andattention to them that we feel we should give them. But we lose therebytremendous helps to the daily living.
Through the body and its avenues of sense, we are intimately related tothe physical universe about us. Through the soul and spirit we arerelated to the Infinite Power that is the animating, the sustainingforce—the Life Force—of all objective material forms. It is throughthe medium of the mind that we are able consciously to relate the two.Through it we are able to realise the laws that underlie the workings ofthe spirit, and to open ourselves that they may become the dominatingforces of our lives.
There is a divine current that will bear us with peace and safety on itsbosom if we are wise and diligent enough to find it and go with it.Battling against the current is always hard and uncertain. Going withthe current lightens the labours of the journey. Instead of beingcontinually uncertain and even exhausted in the mere efforts of gettingthrough, we have time for the enjoyments along the way, as well as theability to call a word of cheer or to lend a hand to the neighbour, alsoon the way.
The natural, normal life is by a law divine under the guidance of thespirit. It is only when we fail to seek and to follow this guidance, orwhen we deliberately take ourselves from under its influence, thatuncertainties arise, legitimate longings go unfulfilled, and thatviolated laws bring their penalties.
It is well that we remember always that violated law carries with it itsown penalty. The Supreme Intelligence—God, if you please—does notpunish. He works through the channel of great immutable systems of law. It is ours to find these laws. That is what mind, intelligence, isfor. Knowing them we can then obey them and reap the beneficent resultsthat are always a part of their fulfilment; knowingly or unknowingly,intentionally or unintentionally, we can fail to observe them, we canviolate them, and suffer the results, or even be broken by them.
Life is not so complex if we do not so continually persist in making itso. Supreme Intelligence, creative Power works only through law. Scienceand religion are but different approaches to our understanding of thelaw. When both are real, they supplement one another and their findingsare identical.
The old Hebrew prophets, through the channel of the spirit, perceivedand enunciated some wonderful laws of the natural and normal life—thatare now being confirmed by well-established laws of mental and spiritualscience—and that are now producing these identical results in the livesof great numbers among us today, when they said: "And thine ears shallhear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when yeturn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left."
And again: "The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seekhim, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsakeyou." "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed onthee; because he trusteth in thee." "The Lord in the midst of thee ismighty." "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shallabide under the shadow of the Almighty." "Thou shalt be in league withthe stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peacewith thee." "Commit thy way unto the Lord: trust also in him and heshall bring it to pass." Now these formulations all mean something of a very definite nature , or, they mean nothing at all. If they are actualexpressions of fact, they are governed b