Chapter 6
THINKING
Charles Fillmore
Dynamics For Living
TO MAN is given the highest power in the universe, the conscious power of thought. There is a universal, creative force that urges man forward to the recognition of the creative power of his individual thought. This thought is elemental, and all its attributes come under the dominion of man. When he cooperates with Principle, man sits on the throne of his authority and the elemental force is subject to him.
Thinking is the formulating process of mind. The thinking faculty is the inlet and the outlet of all your ideas. It is active, zealous, impulsive, but not always wise. Its nature is to think, and think it will. The thinking faculty in you makes you a free agent, because it is your creative center. In and through this one power you establish your consciousness–you build your world.
Thought
Thought is a product of thinking. It is a mental vibration or impulse. Each thought is an identity that has a central ego around which all its elements revolve. Thoughts are capable of expressing themselves. Every thought clothes itself in a life form according to the character given it by the thinker. The form is simply the conclusion of the thought. The mind of man marshals its faculties and literally makes into living entities the thoughts that it entertains.
Energies (thought vibrations) are sent out by the force and power of thought. Thought power is the moving force within an idea that gives it expression. All structures are built by thought power. This power is transmitted from mind to mind and from mind to body in all living forms. The omnipresent, invisible substance (thought-stuff) is ever ready to take form in accordance with one’s mental pattern. The thought-stuff of the universe is more sensitive than a phonograph record. It transcribes not only all sounds, but even the slightest vibration of thought.
Thought Aggregation
Like attracts like. A thought will take up its abode in our consciousness with thoughts of like character. This law of attraction continues until combined thoughts make a colony. This colony of thoughts expresses itself in the cells of the body–for good or ill. This collection or aggregation of ideas in the mind is a thought center. They build organs through which they manifest. The surrounding mental climate or thought atmosphere is created by each person in accordance with the character of his thinking. Thoughts of negation build a discordant atmosphere. Thoughts of love, prosperity, health, and faith create a harmonious mental atmosphere.
Thought Control
Thought is controlled by the right use of affirmation and denial–by the power of the mind to accept and reject. This power of the mind is the I AM, and it is through the avenue of I AM expression that thought control, dominion, and mastery are obtained. Thoughts are controlled by the mind through its power to say “yes” or “no.” To “hold a thought” is to affirm or deny a certain proposition both mentally and audibly until the logic of the mind is satisfied and spiritual realization is attained.
Denial
Human consciousness is made up of a multitude of false personal and race beliefs. Denial is the mental process of erasing from consciousness the false beliefs. It clears away belief in evil as reality and thus makes room for the establishing of Truth. Through it we get rid of the shadows. We cleanse the mind. A denial is a relinquishment and should not be made with vehemence. Make denials as though you were gently sweeping away cobwebs.
Affirmation
When we poise ourselves in Divine Mind our denials and affirmations will be made in right relation. We will know just when to let go of a thought and when to lay hold of another.
The purpose of affirmation is to establish in consciousness a broad understanding of the divine principles on which all life and existence depend. By affirming Truth we are lifted out of false thinking into the consciousness of Spirit. An affirmation is a positive statement of Truth. By the use of it one claims and appropriates that which is his in Truth. It is the mental movement that asserts confidently and persistently the Truth of Being in the face of all appearances to the contrary. The sum total of thought in all its positive aspects composes the affirmations that bring ideas into form. They do not have to be made in set terms, words, or statements.
Affirmations of words of Truth realized in consciousness bring the mind into just the right attitude to receive light, power, and guidance from Spirit. Words are the vehicles through which ideas make themselves manifest. Words that have in them the realization of perfect, everywhere-present, always-present divine life, and our oneness with this life, are dominant in the restoration of life and health. When spiritual words abide in man’s consciousness, the word or thought formed in the human mind must give way to the higher principles of Being.
The Decree
To decree is to command or to ordain. To decree with assurance is to establish and to fix an ideal in substance. The force behind the decree is invisible. It binds with invisible power the one who makes it. We have only a slight conception of the strength of the intangible. Affirmations are far stronger than the strongest visible thing in the world. Words charged with power and intelligence increase with use.
Thought and Word
Man cannot know how the thought or word work except through his own consciousness. He must understand, control, and put in order his own thought and word. Our most important study is our own consciousness. By a right understanding, and by using right thoughts and words, man will experience the kingdom within him.
Thoughts are capable of expressing themselves. They think. Man thinks. He thinks into his thoughts all that he is. There is a difference between the original thinking and the secondary thought. One has its animating center in Spirit; the other, in thought. One is Son of God; the other is son of man. If man conformed to the divine creative law, his word would make things instantly.
Every word has its effect, though unseen and unrecognized. What we think, we usually express in words. Our words bring about in our life and affairs whatever we put into them. A weak thought is followed by words of weakness. Through the law of expression and form, words of weakness change to weakness the character of everything that receives them.
Talk about nervousness and weakness produces corresponding conditions. Sending forth the word of strength and affirming poise will bring about the desired strength and poise. Every time we speak we cause the atoms of the body to tremble and change their places. Not only do we cause the atoms of our own body to change their position, but we raise or lower the rate of vibration and otherwise affect the bodies of others with whom we come in contact. Thus, every word brings forth after its kind.
Directive Word Power
The spoken word carries vibrations through the universe and moves the intelligence inherent in every form, animate or inanimate. Man, the highest emanation of Divine Mind, has great directive power and is really cooperator with God in forming the universe. We should be speaking words of Truth to everything. There are no secrets and no concealments.
The power of the word is given man to use. The better he understands the character of God and his own relation to humanity, the more unselfishly will he exercise this power. Some are using this power in selfish ways. This should not deter others who have a better understanding of the law from using it in right ways. When we need things necessary to our happiness, it is not sacrilegious to set in action this higher law in attaining them. The word of one in authority carries weight and produces far-reaching effects. If your word is selfish, that which will come to you through its use will be unsatisfactory. Learn to speak right words only. It is your duty as expresser of the divine law to speak forth the Logos, the very Word of God, to manifest for you and in you its innate perfection.
Thought and Act
Every act of man has its origin in thought, which is expressed into the phenomenal world from a mental center that is but a point of radiation for an energy that lies back of it. That point of radiation is the conscious I, which in its correct relation is one with Cause, and has at its command all the power potential in Cause.
The conscious I can look in two directions–to the outer world where the thoughts that rise within it give sensation and feeling, which ultimate in a moving panorama of visibility; or to the world within, whence all its life, power, and intelligence are derived. When the I looks wholly within, it loses all sense of the external. When it looks wholly without, upon sensation and feeling, it loses its bearings in the maze of its own thought creations. Then it builds up a belief of separateness from, and independence of, a causing power. Man sees only form and makes his God a personal being located in a city of dimensions. This belief of separateness leads to ignorance. When the soul thinks itself something alone, it cuts itself off in consciousness from the fount of inspiration. Believing himself separate from his source, man loses sight of the divine harmony. The only walls of separation are those built by consciousness of separation.
Thought Forms
Many factors enter into the process of thinking. The capacity of the thinker to form thoughts, to give them substance and force, is the great factor. The understanding of right and wrong, truth and error, substance and shadow, is important. Many significant conditions enter into that mental process loosely termed thinking.
Every mental process is generative. From thinking is evolved what is called living. Thinking is formative. Thought clothes itself in a life form according to the character given it by the thinker. Every thought produces a living organism. Thought is creative and covers every phase of life. Every life expression originated in some thought. All of the detestable thoughts that mankind harbors, produce living organisms after their kind.
Error Thoughts
Error thoughts represent belief in thoughts and beliefs not of God. They are untrue. They have no foundation in Truth. Error thought is a product of the fallen human consciousness. It is negation or evil. Evil is a parasite. It has no permanent life of itself. Its whole existence depends on the life it borrows from its parent. When its connection with the parent is severed, nothing remains. In Divine Mind there are no evil conditions. Such conditions have no basis of reality. They are conjurations of a false consciousness. Apparent evil is the result of ignorance. When Truth is presented, the error disappears.
Man has the privilege and freedom of using God-power as he will. When he misuses it he brings about inharmonious conditions. These are called evil. Evil appears in the world because man is not in spiritual understanding. He can do away with evil by learning rightly to use the one Power. If there were a power of evil, it could not be changed.
Experimentation
Man is a free agent. He can open his mind to divine wisdom and know creative law, or he can work out his unfoldment through experimentation. Our human race is in the experimental stage. In our ignorance we transgress the law to the very limit, and then a great reaction sets in, a general condition that is negative to the point of dissolution. Then that in us which always looks obediently to God in an extremity is awakened, and we seek divine guidance. The human race has formed laws of physical birth and death, laws of sickness and inability, laws that recognize no other source of existence except the physical. The sum total of these laws forms a race consciousness separate from and independent of creative Mind. When creative Mind seeks to help men spiritually, the human mind opposes it and makes every effort to solve its problems in its own way.
The great need of the human family is mind control. Mastery is attained through realization of the power of Spirit.
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Dynamics For Living by Charles Fillmore
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