The Pathway of Roses/To Know and Think the Truth

by Christian D. Larson

CHAPTER XI

TO KNOW AND THINK THE TRUTH

To mentally live in the spiritual understanding of truth, and to give constant expression, in thought, to the words of truth, is to train the mind to know the truth in a larger and larger measure; and to know the truth is to create and express true conditions, throughout the entire personality.

A statement of truth is the absolute truth expressed in words; that is, the mental or verbal expression of a certain state of perfect and divine being. Therefore, a statement of truth does not describe things as they are in the external, but describes man as he is in the spirit; and when the mind begins to think of man as he is in the spirit, the perfect qualities of the spirit will be unfolded and brought out into the personal life.

The life of the spirit is the true life of man because man is a spiritual being; the soul is the real man; the mind and the body are merely instruments. For this reason it is evident that when man thinks of himself he must necessarily think of himself as he is in the spirit. The conditions of the body do not describe the divine state of the soul; the soul is real, absolute, divine, perfect, complete, created in the image of God, while the personality is but a partial expression of the real, in many respects incomplete, and in a state of development.

When man thinks that the incomplete conditions of his personality constitute himself he is not thinking the truth about himself; his thought is false, and false thinking produces false or detrimental conditions in mind and body.

However, when he thinks of himself as he is in the divine perfection of his being, he is thinking the truth about himself; his thought is the truth, and the thinking of truth produces true or wholesome conditions in mind and body. Therefore, so long as man thinks of himself as being an imperfect personality he will cause his personality to be imperfect, weak, sickly and more or less in disorder; but when he constantly thinks of himself as he is in the perfect, wholesome, divine state of his real spiritual being, he will cause his personality to be wholesome, healthful, harmonious and in the most perfect state of order.

The truth gives freedom. To know the truth is to live in the perfect world of truth. When the mind discerns truth, all thought is created in the likeness of truth; all thought is truth; and man is as he thinks. To think the truth is to create that which is true, and when the true comes into being the false ceases to be.

There can be no darkness in the light; there can be no false conditions in the truth; therefore, when man is in the truth, the wholeness and the perfection of the truth will pervade his entire being through and through. Every part will be true to the truth, and every element will express the divinity of man.

When the mind thinks the truth, every mental conception of true being will formulate itself in a statement of truth; these statements will convey to man's intelligence the higher understanding of all that is. The mind will learn to see all things as they are in truth; the divine perfection of all things will be realized; all thought will contain the spirit of truth, and man, himself, will be the truth in every fibre of his being. Therefore, every mind should think statements of truth as frequently as possible, and with the deepest conviction possible.

The conditions of the personality are the direct effects of the states of the mind; therefore, the conditions of the personality will always be true, good and perfect so long as the states of the mind are true; and the states of the mind will always be true so long as the mind thinks the truth—thinks the truth about man as he is in the divine perfection of his real spiritual being.

To train the mind to think the real truth about man, statements of truth, of every possible description, should be employed extensively. In brief, the mind should be daily drilled, in the thinking of absolute truth; that is, the mental or verbal expression of statements of truth; and to enter into the spiritual understanding of the real significance of every statement should be the central purpose in view.

The mere mechanical repetition of such statements will not avail; the real truth of each statement is discerned only when the mind enters into the very soul of the statement; and it is the real truth that we wish to know, because it is the knowing of real truth that alone makes for freedom in life and that produces the fullness of life. To train the mind to think the real truth, the following statements of truth may be employed, though the wording may be changed to correspond with the state of each individual need, or the degree of conscious development in the spiritual life.

The perfection of my being is now realized in the spiritual understanding of truth

The understanding of truth reveals to the mind the divine perfection of all being, and the more spiritual this understanding is the more clearly can the divinity of man be discerned. Spirituality illumines, because to be spiritual is to live in the supreme light of the spirit. In the spirit there is no darkness, therefore, in the spirit all things can be seen as they are, and to see all things as they are is to see that all things are created in the likeness of God. The realization of the great truth that being is perfect, created in the image of God, will cause this perfection to be expressed. What we realize in the spirit will be expressed in the person. Therefore, when the real truth of this statement is understood, the personal life will be a manifestation of the spiritual life, and all will be well in body, mind and soul.

God is love, and in Him I live and move and have my being

To live the true spiritual life—the life of complete emancipation and high spiritual attainment, it is necessary to love all things with the pure, limitless love of the soul, but such a love cannot be realized so long as consciousness is personal only. It is when we feel that we live in the love of God that we gain consciousness of that love that loves all things at all times, and we shall invariably feel that we do live in the love of God when we know the real truth of the statement that God is boundless love, and that we have our being in Him. To realize that we live in God is to feel His presence, and when we do feel His presence we become absolutely filled with a love that is so tender, so beautiful, so high and so sublime, that we are placed completely at one with all the universe. We immediately transcend, and eliminate entirely, every adverse feeling; we are at peace with everything and that peace is animated with the spirit of that love that cannot be measured. To live in such a love is supreme joy, and it is the privilege of every soul now.

I am fixed on high in the spirit of truth

The I Am of every soul can truthfully make this statement, for real being is permanently established in the true life of the spirit, and as every individual is the I Am of his own being, every individual, to speak the truth, must make this statement about himself. To realize the truth of this statement is to enter more and more into the fixed state of true being, and to grow in the realization of this state is to gain that absolute safety and security where the soul finds complete divine protection. To be in the spirit of truth is to be in the very life of true existence, and to be fixed in this life is to occupy a permanent place in God's own beautiful world. In other words, to be fixed in the spirit of truth, is to be anchored in God, and we can readily realize how absolutely secure such a state of being must be. When we make this statement we should try to realize what existence in the truth must necessarily mean, how it must feel to be in the consciousness of the spirit of such an existence, and what a life must hold in store that is permanently established on the very heights of that existence. The more fully we enter into the soul of the truth that this statement conveys, the sooner we shall realize the truth itself; and when we do, we shall know that we are fixed on high, permanently established in the spirit of truth, forever anchored in God.

My spiritual being is the expression of eternal life

The life eternal is the whole of real, absolute, limitless life, and the real, spiritual man is this life individualized and expressed. The life eternal contains the whole complete existence; therefore, to live the life eternal is to live all that there is in absolute existence. It is the life eternal that the soul lives, and since man is the soul, he should affirm that he is living the life eternal now, and that his true being is the perfect expression of that life. The life eternal is the life of the divinity that is in man, and the true being of man constitutes that divinity; but we manifest in personal life only that which we become conscious of, therefore the mind must be unfolded to realize the true nature of the life eternal before we can enter into life now. To unfold the mind into this conscious realization, all thinking should be animated with the highest spiritual conception of the life eternal that we can possibly form, and the great truth that the true spiritual being of man is the perfect expression of that life, should be held before the mental vision constantly. In addition, every effort we make to live the life, that is, to live in the soul of real life, will cause this statement, not only to seem true in the ideal, but to prove itself to be true in the actual.

I am ever ascending into the greater and greater freedom of God

God is absolute freedom, and man is eternally becoming what God is. To realize this truth is to place life in that position where personal existence will, at every step in human advancement, be in full possession of that measure of freedom that present consciousness can possibly involve. This means that the life of every moment will be absolutely free, and that the measure of freedom will increase in perfect harmony with the increase of the mind's capacity for freedom. The real man is ever in possession of all the freedom that present development can comprehend and employ, and is ever ascending into the greater freedom of God; therefore, to enter into the realization of this truth is to keep the eye upon the supreme freedom, to steadily rise into more and more of that freedom, and this is the true path to complete emancipation. When we steadily grow into the freedom of God, we must necessarily grow out of everything that is limited, undesirable or adverse. The lesser passes away as we pass upward and onward into the ever expanding world of the greater.

God is health and wholeness, and I am his image and likeness

There can be no sickness in God; for the same reason there can be no sickness in the real being of man; and as each individual is what he is in his own real being, he must necessarily be well at all times. The real man cannot possibly be sick any more than light can be darkness, because he is as God is; therefore no man can truthfully say, at any time, that he is sick, weak or disabled. He cannot be any of these things, no matter what personal conditions may seem to be. The real man is always well, and I am the real man. I am not the body, nor the instrument, nor the garment. I am the I Am, the image of God, the exact likeness of the Most High. When adverse conditions appear in the personality, there are personal causes, either physical or mental, but these conditions can never enter the life of the real spiritual man. The real man continues to be well and strong at all times, and the life of the real man is perpetually a life of perfect health and wholeness. To live constantly in the conscious realization of the life of the real man is to always feel well, in body, mind and soul. There can be no sickness in the body so long as we live in the life of health, and we do live in the life of health so long as we continue in the realization of the great truth that God is health, and that we are as He is. Those adverse conditions that may exist in the body now will entirely disappear the moment we enter into the realization of real life, and begin to live in the spirit of the truth that we are as God is—perfect and whole, now and forever.

My Father and I are one

The mind that was in Christ Jesus, the same mind is in you, and this mind knows that My Father and I are One. When we enter into the spirit of the divine mind we realize that there is no separation whatever in the spirit. The spirit of the human soul is absolutely one with the spirit of the Infinite. There is no difference whatever in divine essence or soul life; only the Infinite is God while the human soul is an expression of God the son of God, the only begotten of God.

When we enter into the very presence of God, we know that no separation can exist in the spirit, and we also learn that the Christ consciousness implies the highest consciousness of this divine oneness. The mind that was in Christ Jesus is conscious of the spiritual oneness that exists between God and man, and we enter into that mind whenever we feel that we are in the presence of God.

To realize that we are one with God, in spirit and in truth, is to realize that we are also one with the life, the divinity and the perfection of God; and therefore we are as God is; what is in God is in us; we live the same life that He lives, and since there can be no imperfection in His life, there can be no imperfection in our life.

The spiritual life of man is perfect, and when man enters fully into the consciousness of his spiritual life, his personal life will become the exact expression of His spiritual life. Then the Word will become flesh, and no ill can exist in the body any more. Nor can the untruth any longer exist in the mind.

To grow in the Christ consciousness is to grow in the consciousness of the spiritual life, and as the light of the spiritual life becomes stronger and stronger in mind, these elements of darkness, sickness, adverseness or imperfection that may remain in personal existence will entirely disappear. Then we shall realize the emancipated life, the freedom that comes from the knowing of the truth.

God is my strength. I am strong with His limitless life and power

To dwell perpetually in the conviction that the strength of the Infinite is our strength, is to steadily grow in the conscious realization of power, and the more power we become conscious of the more power we possess. To think of weakness in any sense of the term becomes impossible when we know that the limitless power of the Infinite is just as much ours as it is His. All that the Father hath is mine. And when we cease to think of weakness we shall never again be conscious of weakness.

To think of truth we can never admit that we are weak; we cannot even admit that it is possible for us to become weak. When we feel weak we are simply permitting ourselves to be untrue to ourselves; we ignore the reality of our own being and cause the mind to create conditions in our system that are false. Thus evil begins. But so long as we cause the mind to be fixed in that great truth that God is our strength, we shall not be conscious of anything that is not strength; nor will the mind create any condition that is not true to the truth.

When we realize that the strength of the Infinite is our strength, and that the strength of the Infinite is limitless, we must come to the conclusion that we are capable of doing anything that the living of a great life may demand. Whatever we are called upon to do, we are equal to it, because, have we not the power of the Supreme with which to work?

In the light of this truth we can never say that we are unable to do what the hour may require; nor can we say truthfully that we are ever tired, wearied or overcome. Such thoughts do not belong to the truth. While we are in the truth there is nothing that can make us tired; nor is there anything that is too much for us. God is our strength, and the power of Him that is within us is greater than anything in the world.

Though the flesh may seem to be weak, it seems so only because we have not fully accepted what is truly our own, the strength of the Infinite. But when we do accept this strength, the power of the spirit will manifest in the flesh; we shall then be strong, through and through, with power from on high. Every part of body, mind and soul will live with limitless life, because God lives with limitless life, and all that the Father hath is mine.

My being is sustained in the Word of Truth

The word of truth is the coming forth of truth into life; it is truth taking shape and form in the world of being, and to be sustained in the word of truth is to so live that everything in life is shaped, formed and determined by the power of truth.

To think frequently of the great statement that we are sustained in the shaping and forming power of truth is to place the mind more and more perfectly in harmony with that power; in consequence, the mind will be shaped more and more in the exact likeness of truth.

When the mind assumes the form of truth, every action of the mind becomes an expression of truth; the mind itself becomes a true mind and all thinking will convey the elements of truth to every part of the being of man. When the mind is formed by the truth, only true conditions will be formed by the mind; and therefore, neither sickness, inharmony, weakness, adversity, pain nor want can possibly exist anywhere in the human system.

To feel that we are sustained in the word of truth is to produce that deep realization of the power of truth that is so conducive to the full understanding of truth; and as we grow in the understanding of truth we grow into the freedom that is produced by the truth.

The word of truth is the living truth; that is, the power of truth expressed in tangible action; and is therefore distinct from abstract truth, or the mere intellectual conception of truth. The intellectual aspect of truth does not sustain the true life because it has not become the word, or the power of true formation. But the realization of the world of truth takes life into what may be termed truth in action; and when we are in the truth in action we are acting in the truth.

To act, live or think in the truth is to give the sustaining power of truth to every action, and thus every action will not only be a true action, but it will contain the limitless power of truth. This is why no true action can fail, and also why no ill can possibly come to any human personality that lives in the word of truth, and that is consciously resolved into the pure spiritual essence of truth.

When the human system is sustained in the word of truth, every part of the system is fixed on high; that is, placed within that true state of being where everything is created in the image of God, and where everything is always well. In this state the good alone exists; everything has freedom because it is in the world of absolute freedom, and therefore everything will do what divine purpose planned that it should do. This is the true meaning of freedom, and it is such freedom alone that can give to every soul what the largest life and the greatest joy may need or desire.

"But let your speech be yea, yea; nay, nay." Every statement we make should either affirm that which is true or deny that which is not true. Statements that contain both the elements of truth and the elements of untruth are of the evil one; they confuse the mind, and lead to sin, sickness and death. Make no compromise with the untruth, and let no half-truth find expression in your life. Give positive expression, in thought, word, action and life, to that which you know to be real, and eliminate completely what you know to be unreal. Make your life a living affirmation of the great things that are before, and so live that everything you do will deny the lesser things that are passing away.

Spiritual consciousness is in the light of the truth, and can always see the truth clearly. To see the truth clearly is to know the truth, and to know the truth is to be free.

The spiritual understanding of truth is the direct consequence of the mind's insight into that realm where everything is what it is; where nothing can be added and nothing taken away.

When you inwardly feel what you say, you give spiritual power to your words; and what you say will surely come to pass.