CHAPTER 1
NEW THOUGHT DEFINED
NEW THOUGHT is not, as many believe, a name or
expression employed to define any fixed system of thought, philosophy, or
religion, but is a term used to convey the idea of growing or developing thought.
In considering this subject, the word "New" should be duly and freely
emphasized, because the expression "New Thought" relates only to what
is new and progressive.
It would be a misuse of terms to apply the expression
"New Thought" to a system of thought, because when thought is molded
and formed into a system, it ceases to be new. When a system of thought has
reached maturity and ceases to grow, expand, and develop, it can no longer be
defined by the word "New." It follows, therefore, as a necessary conclusion,
that no system of new thought, or no system of thought defined by that
expression, now exists or ever can exist. "New Thought" is the result
or creation of perpetually advancing mind. The growing mind is not content with
the past or its achievements. It is not satisfied with systems of philosophy or
religion originating in other ages and handed down through succeeding
generations. They do not satisfy the wants of the mind. Systems do not grow,
mind develops. It wants something larger and better; it wants improvement,
growth, and development. It is merely the logical and natural effort of the
mind in its struggle for advancement; it is following its basic and inherent
law.
As the growing mind applies thought to whatever enters
into consciousness, it gains new and enlarged conceptions and, therefore,
grows, and what it thinks is new. New Thought has been defined as the latest
product of growing mind. A distinguished writer has characterized New Thought
as an attitude of mind and not a cult. Those who grasp the true meaning and
spirit of New Thought, or, as it is sometimes called, progressive or unfolding
thought, do not conceive that a finished or completed system of thought, either
philosophical or religious, is a possibility. All systems of thought change
with the flight of time. Decay follows growth. The philosophies and religions
of today differ from those of yesterday, and those of tomorrow will be unlike
those of today. History alone demonstrates the truth of this statement. This
conclusion is inevitable also from the very laws that govern man's growth and
existence.
Man's body is not the only result of the processes of
evolution, growth, and development, but his mind is likewise the product of the
same great law. Man is an evolved and evolving being, physically, mentally,
and spiritually. Change and growth are the silent mandates of divinity. The
eternal current ever moves onward. We do not reckon with all of Nature's
forces. Back of all, unseen yet all powerful, is the one universal law or cosmic
urge, forever pushing and projecting man forward into higher physical, mental,
and spiritual development.
Through the principle of evolution, physical man was
brought to his present state of development. By the same principle has he come
to his present mental and spiritual condition. It is a principle operating
throughout the universe. Evolution is a movement from the lower to the higher,
from the simple to the complex, from the inferior to the superior. How can
there be a fixed system of thought, a complete philosophy, a perfect theology,
or a defined religion? For as man grows mentally and spiritually he moves away
from such limitations. As his mental and spiritual visions expand, the very
laws of his being lead him to higher and still higher conceptions of
philosophical and religious truth. "Through spiritual evolution are we led
to God."
Every system of philosophy or religion is the result
of an evolutionary process, the product of the human mind and understanding.
When thought changes, when the mind develops, when the understanding is
enlarged, philosophies and religions must likewise change. This is a
self-evident truth. Were it otherwise, systems of thought, philosophies, and
religions would be greater than the minds that created them and launched them
upon the world — the things created would be greater than their creators. Were
it not so, systems that have no inherent power of growth would become greater
than man, whose very law is growth.
Moreover, fixed systems of thought, either philosophical
or religious, are impossible, because they are not the same to any two persons
but convey different meanings to each individual. No two persons think alike,
or have the same conception or understanding of any important subject, least of
all of a philosophical or religious subject. No two individuals are alike or
think alike. Duplicates have never been discovered in all the broad domain of
Nature. Scientists tell us that even the molecules of which our bodies are
composed differ one from the other.
"No two men in creation think alike,
No two men in creation look alike,
No two men in creation are alike,
No worlds or suns or heavens,
but are distinct and wear a separate beauty.''
No individual can convey his thoughts, ideas, and
impressions entire to another. Language, either written or spoken, is but a
symbol, and at best an imperfect vehicle to convey thought. The meaning of
truth is deflected in its transmission. "Thought is deeper than speech;
feeling deeper than thought; souls to souls can never teach what to themselves
is taught." The mental and spiritual visions of man differ as the stars
differ in magnitude. The same light does not shine with equal brilliancy on the
pathway of each individual. What is light to one, may be a shadow to another.
Nor are our ideas changeless and fixed. Our thoughts,
conceptions, and understandings change with the advancing years, as the soul
receives new influx of light. As each morning bathes the earth in new light, so
each returning day and every recurring season bring new meanings and
understandings to the soul.
The greatest gift from God to man is a growing mind,
one that expands from day to day as the light of truth breaks upon it. Were it
otherwise, were our ideas fixed and changeless, life would be intolerable and
existence a sterile waste. It is the new conception that thrills the soul and
broadens the understanding, as the influx of new life brings physical health
and growth.
In the search for truth each ultimate fact becomes a
cause, a starting point for the discovery of more truth. Every attainment is
the beginning of the next. "Every end is the beginning." The
discovery of a law of Nature is only the forerunner of a more universal law.
Thus in the search for truth the endless tide of progression rolls on, forever
conveying to man broader conceptions of truth and carrying him into a higher
realization of his relationship with divinity.
As man renews his mind and reaches out for larger
conceptions of truth, his understanding is enlarged, he gains new viewpoints,
his expanded thought is translated and externalized into life, he grows, he
advances, he comes into a closer union with God.
Thought is not final. What we last think may be our
best thought, but it is not our ultimate though. It is only the fore-gleams of
greater thought — we may not encompass the whole truth, but we can enlarge our
conceptions of truth and thus bring ourselves nearer the reality. We all live,
move and have our being in an atmosphere of truth; truth is only assimilated by
the individual. It is not susceptible of monopoly or systematization. It is not
encompassed by institutions, but its living spirit is present in every
manifested form and object of Nature.
We hear much at times about systems, established
religions, and settled creeds. Every institution insists on laying its
foundation on a dogma. It has been well said that when a church is built over
truth, truth flies out at the window. Every creed and every dogma offered to
man undertake to show man's true relationship to God. The major premise of
every dogma rests upon an idea of God, and yet no two persons can be found with
the same ideals and conceptions of God. Man's idea of God is but an image of
himself. The major premise of every creed is the conception some man had of
God. To talk about settled creeds, the indisputable presumption must be
indulged, that all other men have the same conception of God. To have a
finished system of thought or a definite creed respecting man's relations to
God presupposes a perfect and complete knowledge and understanding of that
relation, which is beyond man's comprehension in his present state of
development. When he has attained the mental and spiritual growth necessary to
comprehend that relationship in its fullness and entirety, he will possess all
knowledge and all wisdom, he will be omniscient.
It took the Christian Church until the fifth century
to formulate its creeds, and yet for fourteen centuries it has been striving to
settle them and mold them into an acceptable system. Has it accomplished it?
Are its adherents any nearer an agreement? It is no nearer the coveted goal
than it was fourteen hundred years ago. It is creed against creed, dogma
against dogma, and their adherents still continue to look outward for truth.
Man has caught only a few rays from the great light of
truth. Even the agencies of external Nature transcend and baffle our understanding.
We use electricity, it is in our bodies, we see its manifestations, we harness
it, we regulate it, but we know not what it is. How light reaches the earth is
a puzzle to the understanding. Because we do not understand these familiar
agencies, the meaning of Nature's symbols, must we relinquish all efforts to
discover their meaning and to find the laws that govern them? Must we desist in
our search for truth?
Science is a search for the secrets of Nature. It is
an attempt to find the laws governing the universe. The laws of the universe
are the laws of God. Science, then, in its broadest aspect is a search for the
knowledge of God. As man delves more deeply into the secrets of Nature, the
mysteries of the universe, his spiritual visions will expand and he will have
broader and more comprehensive conceptions of God. Yet we are told that
religion must be let alone; that creeds and theologies must not be disturbed,
that they are not the subject of inquiry. How futile the attempt to set bounds
to the processes of thought; why should not man seek for a better religion as
he struggles for better government? Thought was the first step toward civil
liberty. Thought is the first step toward the soul's liberty.
Truth is the understanding of the principles
underlying the universe. Truth is as illimitable and boundless as the universe
itself. Principles and laws are changeless, but our understanding of them
changes as our minds gain new conceptions of truth and as they grow and
develop. Only as the mind dwells on principles can it advance to a larger
understanding of truth and higher conceptions of life. Principles are the
landmarks to which all things are tied. When man departs from them he enters
the jungle of uncertainty and confusion. To gain higher conceptions of the
principles and laws underlying the universe is the real work of man. As he
comes into an enlarged understanding of these principles, he directs the
current of his life in accordance therewith. He grows into a closer harmony
with Nature, and enters a richer and more satisfying field of experience.
A moral and religious life must be a growing life, an
advancing life, a life positively and constantly constructive. Man is either
progressing or receding; spiritually and mentally he cannot stand still. All
Nature, with her actions and reactions, proclaims this great truth in every
moment of life.
All useful discoveries in science have been the result
of progressive and continued thought, thought applied to the discovery of the
secrets of Nature. Each discovery has been a stepping-stone to the next. The
discovery of each law became a light for the discovery of more laws. Each
discovery in Nature is a benefit to the race, a step forward, and enlarges
man's understanding of God.
Man can grow into a knowledge of his relationship with
God and reach out toward the divine goal, only as he renews his mind, only as
he enlarges his conception of what is within his consciousness, only as he
presses forward into a higher spiritual and mental development.
Why should not new conceptions be applied to religion
as well as governments? Religion relates to man's life and destiny: Government
regulates man's relation with his fellow-man. Governments have existed as long
as religion. They both sprang into existence with the dawn of reason. They
traveled side by side down the ages. They have changed as man has progressed in
civilization.
We do not yet concede the existence of a perfect
government. The model government is not yet in sight. The struggle to improve
government goes on as relentlessly as ever before in history. The rights of man
forever assert themselves. They have been improved and secured only as he
created new ideals of government, only as he applied new thoughts and new
conceptions to existing governments.
The creeds which attempt to set bounds to religious
thought, which endeavor to define man's conceptions of God, were given to the
world when scientific thinking was unknown and by men whose conceptions of
Nature were no better than idle superstitions. The formulators of the creeds,
in their blind endeavor to set up a system founded on the oriental allegory of
the Garden of Eden, apparently did not know that truth has no terminals and
cannot be defined or circumscribed. If they had looked into the great
laboratory of Nature and given thought and study to her processes, they might
have there read that Nature tells no falsehoods and that her very law is
growth, development, and eternal progress. They might hug the delusion that
creeds are static, that they are fixed and final, but they could find nothing
in Nature remotely to hint at limitation or set bounds to her modifying
processes. Change is written everywhere in her symbols. Her pulsations of life
growth and decay, the morning and evening, the return of the seasons, all
bespeak eternal change. There are no fixtures in all her domain. She has her
seed-time and harvest, her summer and winter, her heat and cold. Her pendulum
always swings.
Everything vibrates and oscillates through the broad
stretches of infinity. Since motion produces change, everything in Nature is
passing through perpetual change.
Let us apply the analogies of Nature to man, for is
man not a part of Nature? The physical man is changing as the moments speed
away. Scientists at one time said our bodies were entirely renewed once in
seven years. Now they have reduced the time to twelve months or less. Man is
constantly putting off the old and putting on the new, but Nature ever tends
toward perfection. From the amoeba to man was a long and tedious struggle, but
it marks the developing and perfecting laws of Nature. Her movements were ever
from the lower to the higher, by the ceaseless and tireless processes of
evolution, to the highly complex and individualized man, conscious of his own
personality and existence.
We recognize man as a co-worker with Nature, and his
right to assist her in her efforts toward perfection. He applies thought to her
processes, and with her aid brings the flower, the fruit, the nut, and the
animal to perfection. Is not Nature a part of God? Are not these symbols
through which God finds expression and speaks to man? Why not Burbank
religions, creeds, and theologies, as well as the fruits and products of the
earth?
When man is a co-worker with Nature he is a co-worker
with God; he applies thought to the processes and laws of Nature, and behold
she smiles back with fatness and plenty. Then let us, with a sublime courage
and kindly spirit, turn the God-given mind in each to higher ideas of God, and
God will smile back with prophetic glimpses of the eternal peace and beauty of
true religion.
All thought is new. What we know, what we understand,
we do not think about. It is only the new that creates interest or enthusiasm.
It alone awakens the mind and soul to activity and effort. The soul is always
thrilled with the reception of new truth. Without enthusiasm nothing great was
ever accomplished. It has ever been the propelling force of man in every
important and momentous undertaking. We instinctively turn from the old to the
new. It is the law of mind, it is Nature's method, it is God's plan of teaching
man to grow.
Emerson said, "What is the ground of this uneasiness
of ours, of this old discontent? What is this universal sense of want and
ignorance, but the fine innuendo by which the great soul makes its enormous
claim?" Progress is the law of the soul. Evermore the mind stretches forth
toward the infinite, to grasp and reduce to understanding her mysteries, her
wanders, and her secrets. To bind it to a fixed creed, a defined religion or
system of thought, is as impossible as to pluck the Pleiades from the galaxy of
the stars. The mind that can flash its thoughts across billions of miles from
star to star in the hundredth part of a second, as the scientists tell us is
possible, cannot be fettered by fixed creeds, dogmas, or systems, or bend to
the authority or edict of an institution.
As we constantly advance to higher and more perfect
ideals, we obtain clearer conceptions of the principles of truth, we expand and
extend our spiritual horizon. We thus come to a better understanding of
ourselves, our powers and forces, and the meaning of our existence.
Man grows only as he enlarges his thoughts. How can
his thoughts be enlarged except as he takes on the new? By no other process can
he enlarge his conceptions and understanding of life. As his ideals expand he
comprehends more truth, he moves forward, he extends his visions, he grows, he
sees beauty, harmony, and law in all created things.
Hence New Thought is a synonym for growth, for
development, for perpetual and eternal progress. It recognizes the superior and
excellent in man; it deals not with limitations; it sets no bounds to the
soul's progress, for it sees in each soul transcendental faculties as limitless
as infinity itself.
But, someone asks, has New Thought nothing but
uncertain and shifting conceptions regarding man's relation to the universe? Is
New Thought a mere tramp in the field of philosophical and religious thought?
Is it anchored to nothing? These inquiries do not create surprise, since for
centuries past men have been told that a belief in certain formulas war the
first step in a religious life. They have become habituated to creeds, beliefs,
and churches of authority and therefore deeply impressed with the thought that
without them religion must decline and cease to have any vitality and strength.
New Thought may be said to possess one fixed creed, that of an eternal search
for truth. It is anchored to that one thought. It believes in truth, but it
does not accept every conception of truth final. It realizes that attainment of
truth is a process of evolution, growth, and development.
Man can acquire truth only as he is mentally and
spiritually prepared to receive it. New Thought is anchored to the idea of
finding the good and the beautiful in life, the development of latent
possibilities in man, and that law reigns supreme in the universe. Anchored to
these principles, New Thought moves forward in its quest for more truth, in its
search for greater light that leads upward and onward toward a unity with God.
It has not come to eradicate the old, except as the old fades away before the
advancing light of the new. However, we have been told that it is dangerous to
put new wine into old bottles lest the bottles may break. New Thought is
constructive, not destructive. It is not here to tear down, but to build up. It
employs addition, not subtraction. Its symbol is plus, not minus.
It recognizes that the universe is supported upon the
enduring foundation of changeless principles and fixed laws, the result of an
infinite and divine intelligence. It realizes also that man may grow into a
knowledge and understanding of those principles and laws only as his conscious
ideals grow from day to day.
Its goal is the understanding of life, of man, and a
conscious unity of man with God. If its adherents differ, it is only in methods
and not in the end sought. It does not enjoin methods. There are many avenues
leading to truth. The arc-light sends out a myriad of rays, but they all lead
to the one light.
The adherents of New Thought worship the omnipresent
God, the indwelling God, in whom we live, move, and have our being. They do not
conceive of God as distant or separated from man, but as a universal Spirit
permeating all Nature, finding its highest expression in man.
No better conception of the God of New Thought can be
expressed than was given by Pythagoras to the world six centuries before the
Christian era. Listen to the great message:
"God is the Universal Spirit that diffuses itself
over all Nature. All beings receive their life from Him. There is but one only
God, who is not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the world, beyond the
orb of the universe; but being Himself all in all, He sees all the beings that
fill His immensity, the only principle the light of heaven, the father of all.
He produces everything. He orders and disposes of all things. He is the reason,
the life and motion of all things."
New Thought teaches that the revelation of God to man
is a continuous process through Nature, through reason, the whispering of
intuition through the events and experiences of life. The objects of Nature
convey their message only as they awaken the divine impulse within, the desire
to come into harmony with God.
Molding our lives more and more into the divine
likeness is the essential thought in any worthy religion; as Plato taught, the
highest aspiration of man is "the free imitation of God."
To teach man to come into a conscious realization of
the divinity within, and the unity of man and God, so that out of the sublimity
of his soul he can say with the Gentle Master, "The Father and I are one,"
is the supreme purpose and meaning of New Thought.