Life Is What You Make It: A Fresh Look at Ancient Ideas

Guest Post by Edward Viljoen

This e-book, the publisher says, was revised and updated form a series of 24 lessons prepared by Ernest Holmes and Frederick Bailes, titled "An Introductory Course in the Science of Mind," and is in the public domain. At Newt List the focus is on updating the language for modern readers by preferring gender-neutral language, and up-to-date punctuation. With this approach Newt List books provides a fresh look at ideas from great inspirational authors.

Bursting With Powerful Statements
Life is What You Make It is bursting with powerful and bold statements such as, "The world is deluded, blind and shackled. And by what? By its own acceptance of negative thoughts. It lies bound in chains of its own forging." The lessons in Life is What You Make It are designed to un-chain the reader by introducing them to their real nature by means of practical ideas such as "Instead of allowing fear pictures to crowd in on your desires, you are going to bring forth faith pictures," and instructs the reader to sit quietly and think over all the reasons why they should have greater happiness and security for themselves and their family. There is an easy and encouraging tone throughout the book that left me feeling enthusiastic about rolling up my sleeves and imagining a greater future for myself and for the world.

Use Your Imagination
The authors point to the use of nothing more than our natural imagination, a skill that they believe has been downgraded into something that works against us by images of fear that crowd in on us relentlessly. They assert that we can go about the task of seriously, and gradually, flooding our imagination with different kinds of images, of pictures that work for us, and lead our efforts in right directions.

Self-Study Guide Provided
One of the features I loved in the book is the Meditation, Question and Answers provided in each chapter. The meditations are poetic personal devotional style prayers that relate to the content of the chapter. Following each meditation is a series of question that the reader can use to assess how much of the lesson was retained and answers are provided to confirm your understanding.
It is both an inspiring book of powerful ideas and a work book for self-study. The authors are relentless in pulling the reader back to the powerful possibilities that exists in a mind that is determined to be free of the conditioning of society.
Here is a link to the book.

http://www.edblogword.blogspot.com
Edward Viljoen is author of the Bhagavad-Gita for Beginners: The Song of God in Simplified Prose and The Science of Mind and Spirit for Beginners: Four Chapters in Simplified Prose. He co-authored (with Chris Michaels) The Prosperous Life Journal, and Practice the Presence, interactive journals available from Stepping Stones Bookstore. He is co-author (with Joyce Duffala) of Seeing Good At Work also available at http://tinyurl.com/c5w5sk9

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7681301

Reading Emerson was like drinking water to me... Ernest Holmes

Introduction to the new e-book from NewtList:

“Reading Emerson was like drinking water to me,” Ernest Holmes once said. “I have studied him all my life.”

Such endorsement from the originator of the Science of Mind philosophy carries great weight. Not that the work of Emerson has ever required such kudos! Since Emerson began disseminating his ideas through essays and lectures, he has influenced writers, poets and great thinkers around the world.

A Radical Spiritual Thinker

In the nineteenth century when he wrote, Emerson was considered quite radical in his spiritual ideas, believing as he did that all things are divine because everything is connected to God. This caused his detractors to feel that Emerson was removing God from theology as its central figure. Yet nothing, as it turned out, could have been further from the truth.

Emerson believed that every human being is an individualization of God, the sole originating force. He believed that each person is operated on by self-executing spiritual laws. It was his belief that God does not necessarily reveal truth, but that truth could be understood by observing nature and the world around us. Though these were radical ideas for nineteenth century minds, it was just this type of independent thinking that attracted a young Ernest Holmes.

At Age Twenty It  Began

When he was merely twenty years old, Holmes inadvertently pick up his brother Fenwicke’s copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays. Later, his brother was quoted as saying, “It was at that moment that life really began for Ernest Holmes.

“Reading Emerson for the first time,” Holmes said, “the first half-dozen lectures or essays gave me a realization that in a certain sense every person has to interpret the universe in terms of their own thinking and personal relationships, and that in order to do it, we have to have faith and confidence in our own interpretation.” It is two of these essays, “History” and “Spiritual Laws,” that seem to have particularly influenced Ernest Holmes.

At some point in his career, Holmes wrote “responses” to Emerson’s essays on History and Spiritual Laws. It is unclear when he wrote this, but it appears to have been in the 1920s, after penning his landmark book The Science of Mind. His notes were transcribed (where legible) and numbered to correspond with the paragraphs of each Emerson essay, though whether due to faulty transcription of the original handwritten text or due to mistakes in the manuscript itself, these numbers did not always accurately correspond to the actual Emerson essay. Additionally, the original version of Holmes’ notes did not contain the original sections of the essay to which Holmes referred, hindering readers from easily correlating Emerson’s text to Holmes’ responses.

Side By Side Texts

This first edition of The Philosophy of Emerson incorporates the Emerson passages, followed directly by the corresponding comments of Ernest Holmes, offering itself as a conversation between these two great thinkers, and more strongly illuminating both the influence of Emerson on Holmes, and manner in which Holmes took Emerson’s ideas to an original place of personal power.

As Holmes once said, “You are an individualization of God. There is a depth and meaning to your own being. If you can discover it, it will answer your own questions.” 

Randall Friesen
www.Newt List.com

To purchase The Philosophy of Emerson click here.

Is Your Language Sexist?

By the mid-eighties the movement toward nonsexist usage had gained so much momentum that researchers who studied its impact by analyzing three recently published American dictionaries of new words were prepared to state, in the cautious phraseology of scholarship, that their results showed "a trend toward nonsexism" in written language.  The data, they said, "provided a judgement of the efficacy of feminists' efforts toward nonsexist vocabulary," and they ventured the opinion that the "importance and justice of the subject have been recognized."

The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing, 2nd Edition,
Casey Miller and Kate Swift, Harper, New York, 1988

Have you noticed a trend toward nonsexist language? 

Perhaps in the increase use of 'their' instead of 'his' as a grammatically flawed, but happily gender inclusive solution? Or perhaps in the appearance of such works as The Inclusive New Testament by Priests for Equality (March 19, 2004), or The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version  by Victor Roland Gold, Jr. Thomas L. Hoyt, Sharon H. Ringe and Susan Brooks Thistlewaite (September 7, 1995).  Or perhaps in the change from "...boldly goes where no man has gone before..." to "where no one has gone before..."

"Manning the event" is giving way to "staffing the event."  Spokesman, man-overboard, mankind, it's all changing.  And in the awkward moments between then and now language struggles to find elegant solutions.

It's an exciting time for our language and Newt List is about the business of producing updated, gender neutral versions of timeless classics.  Producing these versions takes time and mindfulness to maintain the style and voice of the writer while finding elegant solutions to old, and now outdated, language conventions.

You might also enjoy "Why Gender Neutral?"

Living A Life: The Message of New Thought, by Abel Leighton Allen

I read a lot of New Thought writers, but I had not yet come upon Abel Leighton Allen.  I'm glad I did. This little gem sets off right away outlining its goal of setting the record straight.

What is the difference between New Thought and orthodox religions, including Christian Science?

I guess that question is not merely a product of recent times, but has been asked since the beginning of New Thought's young history.

I love these lines from the book "New Thought is the result or creation of perpetually advancing mind.  The growing mind is not content with the past or its achievements."  Wow, what a great reminder to keep expanding and to avoid getting stuck in the rules and dogma of even our own beautiful system.

This is a great little e-book and it's on the 99c special list currently at www.newtlist.com, a good, easy read that I found helped me get back on track with an attitude of exploration, awe and wonder.

Edward Viljoen
www.edblogword.blogspot.com