Book Description
In this very thought provoking work Dr. Murphy covers many of the deepest issues of life (and death) that perplex the mind. The author's lucid, matter of fact writing style should be very helpful with the Truth student's understanding of many of the seemingly abstract concepts put forward by Thomas Troward in his lectures on mental science. This book is a must-read for all serious students of metaphysics and spiritual science. Originally published in 1945, this book has been out of print for over fifty years, and copies are very scarce indeed. This new ebook edition contains the full text of the revised 1948 edition and will be very welcome to Dr. Murphy's legion of fans worldwide, particularly those that have been searching for a copy of this book without success for many years.

Contents

Chapter 1 - DIVINE GUIDANCE…………………………..

Chapter 2 - POWER TO CHOOSE…………………………

Chapter 3 - REBIRTH………………………………………

Chapter 4 - THE BIBLE AND MAN……………………….

Chapter 5 - SUBJECTIVE MIND IMPRESSIONS………...

Chapter 6 - HEARING AND SEEING….…………………..

Chapter 7 - PRAYER AND FORCE………………………..

Chapter 8 - FALSE PROPHETS……………………………

Chapter 9 - FAR-SEEING…………………………………..    

Chapter 10 - MISSING THE MARK……………………….

Chapter 11 - ONENESS WITH GOD……………………….    

Chapter 12 - FORGIVENESS………………………………

Chapter 13 - OUTPICTURING MAN………………………

Chapter 14 - INEQUALITY OF MAN……………………...

Chapter 15 - TIME AND SPACE…………………………...

Chapter 16 - THE JOURNEY BEYOND…………………...

Chapter 17 - FINDING ONESELF………………………….

Chapter 18 - RENEWAL OF THE MIND…………………..

Chapter 19 - MEDITATION………………………………..

Chapter 1

DIVINE GUIDANCE

"If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." —John 4:10.

The living water means inspiration. The word inspiration comes from the Latin "Spiro," meaning I breathe into. We breathe air without effort, likewise we must let the Divine Light or creative essence of God flow through our intellect without tension. The sub­jective mind in us perceives by intuition. It does not have to reason or inquire as it is all-wise, infinite in­telligence. If you say to your subconscious, sometimes referred to as the subjective mind, (being subject to the conscious mind), "Wake me up at seven o'clock," you know that you awaken exactly at the time specified. It never fails.

We must realize that herein lies a source of power which is omnipotent. Many good people have erron­eous ideas about being inspired. They believe that it is an extraordinary event to be experienced by mystics or highly spiritual people, and they think it applies to prayer and the Bible only. This is not true.

Any business man or woman may be inspired by turning to God, and information or divine guidance may be received for any problem. Your business problem can be solved by turning to God for the answer and your information may be general or specific. For example, if you are an executive of a commercial organization and you want a new idea for your sales program, try the follow­ing technique. If you are in business, have a private office where you will not be disturbed; close your eyes; be still; think of the attributes and qualities of God, which are within yourself. This will generate a mood of peace, power and confidence. Then speak in the following, simple manner to the Father within who doeth the works, "Father, thou knoweth all things, give me the idea necessary for a new program." Begin to imagine that you now have the answer and that it is flowing through you. You must not pretend; really believe it; accept it and then drop it. The latter is most important and is the secret of the whole process.

After the silence, get busy; do something; become preoccupied with routine matters. Above all do not sit around waiting for the answer. It comes when you think not and the moment you expect not. The inner voice of intuition speaks like a flash—it is always spontaneous and unannounced. You may get any type of information which will help you along the road to success.

Intuition, which means being taught from within, knows the answer and does not require previous ex­perience. We must realize that God has no problems, if He had, who would solve them? Therefore, when we pray, we know that God has only the answer; He knows no problem, hence we rise to the point of recog­nition of the answer. The answer flows through the problem and there is no problem. No reasoning power is involved and the amazing suddenness with which the solution comes, sometimes is startling. In our Young Peoples' Forum we now teach intuition and inspiration; they find it fascinating and illuminating.

Intuition is the soft tread of the unseen guest. We must welcome this King of Kings and sing His praises; then He will make frequent visits. The abandonment of the intellectual reason for the wisdom of God is intuition. We abandon our objective reasoning only in the sense of deferring it to a higher guide. After we have received an intuition, we use reason in carry­ing it out. You may get specific information about anything.

For example, you may be writing a book and require special data, perhaps written 1000 B. C. The infor­mation may be in the British Museum or in the New York Public Library. It might take you days or weeks to find it, if you do not know specifically what you want. In such instances, relax; be still and say silently and quietly to your Father (your subconscious), "Thou knowest all things, give me this information." Drop off to sleep with the one word "answer." In that re­laxed mood you repeat the word "answer."

Your subjective is all-wise; knows what type of an­swer you desire and will answer in a dream, as a hunch, or feeling that you are being led on the right track. You may get a sudden flash to go some place—a person may give you the answer. "I have ways that you know not of." Many are led to an old book store, where they pick up the very book that gives them the desired data. We must be ever watchful for impressions as Divine guidance, for when a feeling or idea comes to us, we must be able to recognize it.

There are two reasons why we may not acknowledge our hunches. These reasons are tension and failure to recognize them. If we are in a negative, despondent, bitter mood, Divine guidance is impossible. As a mat­ter of fact only negative guidance will prevail. If we are in a happy, confident, joyous mood, we will recog­nize the flashes of intuition that come to us; more­over, we will feel under subjective compulsion to carry them out. It is necessary, therefore, to be still and relaxed when you pray for guidance; for nothing can be achieved by tenseness, fear or apprehension.

Who has not had the experience of being unable to remember a name, then dropping the search, have the name come to him later during repose? If you try too hard to hear a telephone ring, you cannot.

Let us consider the failure to recognize the voice of intuition. For example, suppose we are gazing idly into a store window. An eccentric millionaire puts a $500 bill in our hand. We throw it away thinking it is an advertisement for a dance hall or a beauty parlor. We must be on the alert for Divine ideas or feelings that come to us, and be able to recognize them. In emergencies guidance comes immediately, because we lean all our weight on the Christ within; thus we place all our burden on him and are free; then comes salvation. The answer to everything is within. "You would not have sought me, had you not already found me."

For business and professional people the cultivation of the intuitive faculty is of paramount importance. Intuition offers instantaneously that which the intellect or reasoning mind of man could accomplish only after weeks or months of monumental trial and error. When our reasoning faculties fail us in our perplexities, the intuitive faculty sings the silent song of triumph.

The conscious mind of man is reasoning, analytical and inquisitive; the subjective faculty of intuition is always spontaneous. It comes as a beacon to the con­scious intellect. Many times it speaks as a warning against a proposed trip or plan of action. We must listen and learn to heed the voice of wisdom. It does not always speak to you when you wish it to do so, but only when you need it.

If we will only believe, and not pretend to believe, that God is guiding us now in all our ways, in all our thoughts, words and deeds, we shall be led along the right road. Artists, poets, writers and inventors listen to this voice of intuition. As a result they are able to astonish the world by the beauties and glories drawn from this storehouse of knowledge within themselves.

Become still, relax, close your eyes and say, "Father, thou knowest all things. I am writing a novel. Give me the characters, names, locations and setting." Re­joice that the answer is flowing through you now; drop off to sleep with the word "novel" on your lips, silently repeating it until you are lost in the deep of sleep. The word "novel" is etched in the subconscious. In the morning or a few days later, you will sit down to write; the words will flow; ideas will come in an unending stream and you will say, "Thank you, Father."

The word "intuition" also means "inner hearing." The oldest definition for "revelation" meant "that which is heard." Jesus said, "As I hear, I judge." Hear­ing is not the only way to nurture intuition. Sometimes it comes as a thought, but the most common way is to "hear the voice." Many times it is a voice whose tex­ture, color and substance you can hear as plainly as the voice over the radio. The scientist uses his wonderful gift of imagination and in the silence he sees fulfill­ment. His intuition relates to his particular science.

Intuition goes much farther than reason. You dis­card reason; then comes intuition. You employ reason to carry out intuition. When you receive intuition, you will often find that it is opposite to what your reason­ing would have told you.

This is how one young lady in the advertising busi­ness produces her wonderful slogans. She drops off to sleep with the word "slogan" on her lips, knowing that the answer will be forthcoming. It always is—"He never faileth."

 

Theology has always accounted for the presence of evil in the world by the invention of a devil. The inner meaning of the Old Testament clearly indicates that its writers did not believe in the devil. You are told—several times openly, and always secretly—that the Lord was responsible for evil as well as for good. The Lord, or law, referred to is the law laid down by man, because of his foolish beliefs in sickness, disease, fear, death, old age and all other ills. This is the law decreed by man, and is different from the laws of the Lord God. The laws of electricity, motion, physics and mathematics are example of these laws. We are learning the nature of these laws and specializ­ing them in numerous ways. These laws are neither good nor bad—they are facts in nature.

In reading the Gospels the word devil is not found in the earlier versions. It is mentioned therein "as a spirit of evil." In the teaching of Jesus there is no men­tion of the theological devil. This was later invented by certain writers. Furthermore, let us realize that the word we have translated as "devil" is "a" spirit of evil, not "the" spirit of evil.

Thus Jesus taught that there were many spirits of evil. Constantly the narrative states that He went around expelling the devil from human beings. The spirits of evil spoken of are the moods of hate, jealousy, revenge, remorse and fear. The many phobias, fixa­tions and other destructive negative thoughts which man is capable of conceiving are also spirits of evil.

Jesus is symbolized in the Scriptures as the great teacher of Truth. He explained the laws of life by recounting parables, allegories and fables to the mul­titude. "But without a parable spake he not unto them." He healed all men by seeing them as perfect as their Father in heaven. He proved to them that any man can overcome any obstacle—be it what it may—that besets his path. All that was necessary was for man to believe that the God within could do all things. Jesus' whole mission was to teach people how to find the Christ within, or the true self, which does all things in the name of the Father. In those days man thought that it was too good to be true. Today we still find millions believing in powers apart from themselves and living in dread of the unknown. Countless millions are victims of belief in war, crimes, disease and the power of environment and circumstances to hold them down.

It might be said that the devil is God upside down. The devil is God as He is misunderstood by the so-called wicked or ignorant. God is all, and all there is is God. He is absolute, the only One, and everything is made inside and out of the Absolute. He has created all things and nothing exists apart from God. He is in­finitely good and perfect and the author only of per­fect good.

The devil is everything that God is not; therefore, the devil is not. The devil is wrong thinking and feel­ing; these powers result in wrong action or expression. Man having free will—that is, the freedom to choose happy or despondent moods—creates his own good and his own evil. He is not compelled to love, but he has freedom to love. Love is joyous and spontaneous and we have the freedom to give or retain it. God did create a being out of Himself but did not decree that he must love Him. No, that would not be love, be­cause man would then be an automaton, and all of us would be truth students.

You will realize there would be no joy unless we knew the opposite. How could man know what joy is except he could experience the opposite? Man is conditioned into this world and becomes conscious of opposites—such as north and south, east and west, hot and cold, positive and negative, darkness and light, male and female, night and day, ebb and flow. These constitute man's evil or limitation. He finds that he has to travel from New York to Chicago due to his belief in travel. He will continue to do this until he awakens from his dream of limitation, and finds that all he has to do is to feel that he is in Chicago; really believe it, and he will be there; for Chicago is within himself. He does not go there—he brings "thereness" here. When we find God or the Oneness, all opposites or sense of duality disappear.

The first thing we must realize is that there is no power to challenge God for His throne. If this were true, God would not be God. He is omnipotent, omni­present and all-wise. He is infinite intelligence. "Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." Understanding of Truth frees man from want, fear, sickness, all superstitions and false beliefs of the race. The devil has been created by people who were unable to account for the apparent evil in the world. They reasoned in this fashion: God was omnipotent, but was powerless about the devil.

If any man is now dwelling in hate, that is his per­sonal devil and it will hurt him. If any man believes in external forces capable of injury or destruction, this man is really saying, "God is supreme, yet He is not supreme." He creates a devil who becomes His suc­cessful rival. God asks you to forgive your enemies; yet He cannot forgive His own; for he has created a place of everlasting punishment for them, even though admittedly He is all powerful; this of course is an absurd position.

From the foregoing analysis it might be said that the only evil is the belief in evil. All things and all ac­tivities are from One source—God. It must follow, therefore, that there can be nothing intrinsically evil. The evil comes from our incomplete state of conscious­ness—from our seeing things incorrectly. Reflect that what we call evil in humans we do not call evil in animals, but it is the conditioned responses to natural instincts. Our incomplete state of consciousness, our misapplication and our misapprehension of Universal laws constitute what the world calls evil. We insist upon doing things that will hurt us, even after we have discovered that they hurt us. We prefer the immediate gain though it blinds us to the consequent pain.

The hell spoken of by some is not the punishment dealt out by an angry God. It is the consequence of man's own acts, brought upon himself. He can free himself from this hell, when he is willing to take the necessary steps and undergo the self-discipline of right thinking, right feeling and right action.

What greater self-discipline is there than the con­stant application of the Golden Rule? "As you would that men should do unto you, do you also unto them in like manner!" Likewise, as you would that men should feel about you, feel you also about them in like manner. As long as man refuses to believe that God is good, there remains but one way out—the Via Dolorosa—undergoing pain and suffering.

The word that means "devil" in Hebrew is a word meaning "slanderer" or "a liar." The devil is one who tells lies about reality. A slanderer tells lies about man. The eye slanders a fact because it deals only with the outside appearance of fact. People say, "The sun rises and the sun sets," but it neither rises nor sets. We see nothing as it is in reality, because our eyes are geared to see according to our beliefs. If, for example, our eyes were geared in any other way, we would see things differently. We would see circumstances dif­ferently, and they could become something else in our sight.

According to the Ancient wisdom the word "mirth" is connected with the letters AYIN, which means the eye. The reason for this is that the surface appearance is different from the reality. AYIN is associated with what seems rather than what is—with illusion rather than reality; this is the most mirthful thing about the "devil." The real meaning of "devil" in the Hebrew language is the "slanderer"—one who tells lies about the Truth.

We might point out that as man awakens, he builds a finer and finer instrument until he no longer needs an instrument—he sees without eyes; then man sees real­ity, because the illusion of the thing does not stand in his way. With the mind's eye, he sees beyond the form to the reality behind. In other words, he sees divinity beyond the mask. Without eyes the spiritual man sees "Truth" everywhere. He knows that One and not two is the beginning and end of all. How­ever, two—good and evil—are the aspects One presents to mankind, because men are subject to the illusion of duality.

Fools, deluded by outward appearance, create a de­mon out of the web of their folly. The awakening is that divine understanding which comes to a man who suc­ceeds in meditation, and "the last day" is the time of that achievement. The wise man sees and knows that the demon is the shadow of the Lord. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof, than fine gold." (Prov. 3:13-14).

The belief that desire is a personal affair is due to a misunderstanding of the Divine urge present in all men. The urge towards growth which everyone feels, is not from the personality; nor can this urge be satisfied by accumulating things of the world. Man's desire for power, authority, possessions and fame are mistaken desires, the reason being they are all for limited forms. They set up the law of contraction instead of expansion. Let us have the desire of being rather than of having; then we will unite ourselves with a source of power that no degree of expression can diminish.

It is true, however, that our subjective mind fulfills or grants mistaken desires also, and this is often the cause for our bitter experiences. The desire to get things such as hats, automobiles, fur coats and houses is a disappointing one. When one gets what he desires in the material way, he must then desire something else, but in this way he does not grow spiritually. Eventu­ally he must look for something which will not fade when he gets it. There is only one such desire—that is to give life, love, peace, wisdom and beauty to man­kind. "I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." As with all other desires the more we get, the more we want.

We must remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive. We do this by seeing the "Untouchable glory of God" in others. The more we see It in others, the more It will shine out in ourselves. By doing this daily, we are preaching the Gospel or good news. The more we give in this manner, the more we have. The true gift is that which we give ourselves in consciousness by feeling the reality of the wonderful state we desire to see manifested in the other. To take our desires from the world of limitation—which is eating of "the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil"— brings us disillusionment and pain. It is by these "stripes" we are healed—made whole in consciousness.

The innermost nature of Being is the tendency to give more life, therefore, all desires may be tested in this manner. Let man ask himself if the realization of his desire will enable him to give out more life, love and beauty to his world. If this is true, it is a desire that is never disappointing. "The more you give the more you have." On the lower scale we find that the more you get, the more you want.

There is an inexhaustible storehouse in man, from which he can draw forth security, peace and happiness—this is the Kingdom of Heaven spoken of in the Bible. Having found peace and happiness within, all other things are added to him. The only time is NOW. All experience is now. All Action is now. Let us experi­ence the Kingdom of Heaven now, for God or our Good is the eternal now.