:He should not be discouraged because others have gone ahead on the path more quickly than he, any more than he should be gratified because some have gone ahead more slowly than he, for the fact is that the goal he seeks is already within his grasp. He is the Overself that he seeks to unite with, and the time it seems to take to realize this is itself an illusion of the mind. Let him, therefore, go forward at his own rate and within the limits of his own strength, leaving the result in the hands of God......... ...Paul Brunton New Thought is not a cult or a religion, rather a way of Life that is practical, universal spirituality. It believes that the Divine called by many names — God, Goddess, Great Spirit, Allah, Jehovah — is personal to each person and lives within each of us. It does not have a gender necessarily and some choose not to refer to God as He or She. New Thought honors the divinity and wisdom in each religion and spiritual tradition. New Thought believes there were — and are — many great teachers — Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed — and that each of us has this capacity. 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. "New Thought" is the result or creation of perpetually advancing mind. Change and growth are the silent mandates of divinity. 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 spiritual evolution are we led to God." 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.'' Language, either written or spoken, is but a symbol, and at best an imperfect vehicle to convey thought. … "Thought is deeper than speech; feeling deeper than thought; souls to souls can never teach what to themselves is taught." 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. 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. We all live, move and have our being in an atmosphere of truth; truth is only assimilated by the individual. 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. … To gain higher conceptions of the principles and laws underlying the universe is the real work of man. Man is either progressing or receding; spiritually and mentally he cannot stand still. 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. 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. 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 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. 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 desire to come into harmony with 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.
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