Quiet the mind.

The greatest thing, and the most difficult thing, we have to do, is to drop the mind. It’s a junkyard full of refuse from ages past; refuse of thoughts of limitations: I am a limited body; I have troubles. All thoughts contain limitation. We pile them up in the thing we call mind. Mind is nothing but the total accumulation of all these thoughts. So mind is nothing but a junkyard of limitation.

All right, so how do we get rid of the mind? By quieting it. When we quiet the mind we discover our infinity. The more we see our limitlessness, the more we recognize that junkyard called mind, and the more we let go of it, until we go so far that we drop the whole remaining mind at one time.

Quiet the mind. The moment the mind is quiet enough, this infinite Being that we are becomes self-obvious. So the method is very simple, release until you quiet that mind enough so that you see this infinite Being that you are. Now the moment you see it, the moment you see this infinite Being that you are, you’ll immediately go to work to undo the remaining thoughts that you are not it. And when there are no more thoughts, there’s only the infinite Being left. Lester Levenson

September 1888 Treatment

Questions

1.       What does it mean to make no thought of what we shall eat or drink, when Jesus himself fasted forty days, and the wise men of Scripture fasted oft and dieted to suit occasions?

2. How is the science consistent when in one breath it tell us we can have nothing to ourselves, and in the next breath tells us we can have the desire of our hearts?
3. When we do not know exactly what course to pursue, how can we be sure it is the true or false self that urges us into doing a certain way?

 First –What does it mean to take no thought, etc.? The apparently contradictory nature of word and action here is the divinest harmony to the true scientist. You certainly must not take the least bit of care about what you eat, drink or wear, and yet you are to eat, drink and dress always properly.

            Cast all your care-that is, let this Friend so close by you take care on His own shoulders. Go you about healing in His name, teaching the truth as far as you know it; preaching silently or audibly, as judgment dictates, all about the glory and beauty and blessedness of Spiritual Reality.

            “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added.” That is, if you are dealing with spiritual doctrines, the material movements and things will set themselves right. You are not to set the material things and movements right in order to be spiritual, but you are to be spiritual in order to set material things right.

            If you are spiritually minded you will often fast many days and not realize it. You do not fast in order to be spiritual, but fast because you are spiritual. Fasting in order to be spiritual, weakens you. It is a taking thought for the body that is forbidden. But fasting that you do when you are already spiritual, strengthens and invigorates you.

            You have meat to eat during those hours that the world knows not of. Jesus fasted because he became spiritual as a reward for preaching and teaching Truth. So did the wise men. Then he ate again after the fast. He took no care about it. The Law worked its own way through him and with him.

            We must be spiritual by thinking, and telling spiritual Truth. Then we shall find food, raiment and shelter provided and suited to us.

Second –You ask how the science is consistent which tells us we can have nothing, and then says we can have all things? I find that I must scream, vehemently shout, or whisper mysteriously, or whatever way will impress upon you that nothing, nothing, worse than nothing, belongs to mortality. But all things belong to the spiritual, or truly minded.

            Some are hounding me as if I originated the statement of Scripture, that the fulfillment of the desire of the heart belongs by right to every one of us. But I only read of the Law, I do not originate. I did not discover it. Here is the text again which is the key to the whole question: “Seek ye first the kingdom…and all these things shall be added.” Renounce the world, the flesh and the devil. That is, deny their reality. Then spiritual powers and spiritual faculties, and spiritual supplies make a new creature. Think what is orderly, true, divine.. Speak of these things, teach them; then you will say to the mountains of sorrow, Be gone! And sorrows shall flee away. You shall say to desolation, “I am not desolate,” and true companionship will come to you. You shall have more abundantly than you can ask or even think after you have become truly spiritual. Not til then. To the materially-minded nothing is promised. To the spiritually-minded all things are promised.

            The desire you have this moment deep down in your heart you ought to have fulfilled. Being your own it ought to come to you.

“Rise the hills,

And swim the sea,

And like thy shadow

Fall on thee.”

But it wont come till you are scientific-speak Truth..

            It is very strange how our desires change when we become truthful. We set out with denying all the obstacles that keep us from getting our wishes. Barrier after barrier is removed by our denials.  Then suddenly we take a new outlook. We would not have the thing we first asked for now. We see things from a more sensible standpoint. We finally get just what we desire. Not what we first asked for, but just what we have come to want. The first desire was a good thing to start off with. The last one to end up with. We shall all be changed.”

Third- You ask how to tell the true monition from the false one? Easy enough. Do that which seems just right, or what you seem driven to do and trust your choice. Trust that the Best, the Divine, guided you. Never mind how far away from the Right it seems. Trust that it is Right. Oh! how “you” do like to be trusted! That is, the “you” likes to be trusted by what seems to be you. Trust the Leading. It is the Divine of you. Fear not. Trust. Trust. Trust. Each hour of trusting “yourself” brings you out clearer and clearer as the off-spring of Wisdom. If I were as afraid as so many seem to be, I should be quite swamped, because so many condemn me for the bold moves I make. But I jump to a Leading, and let my best beloved cry out against it. Nobody is quite so wise concerning your own matters as yourself. Whatever you do while trying to do the best you can, you have a right to believe in the doing. I know this by experience. I know it by Law. I know it by inspiration.
Emma Curtis Hopkins

 Alfred John Gayner Banks (1886 – 1953) was born in London, England. After emigrating to the United States, he lived for some years in Texas with his wife Salome Hart Banks. Historical records show him living in 1924 in Asheville, NC.

John Gayner Banks, an Episcopalian priest and founder of the International Order of St Luke the Physician studied with Emma Hopkins in San Francisco. In his book, Healing Everywhere, Banks quoted from Hopkins directly, giving both an excerpt from Hopkins' book Studies in High Mysticism, and a Self-treatment on forgiveness

Dr. Banks wrote several books about Christianity, healing, and reincarnation. The Great Physician: A Manual of Devotion for Those Who Care for the Sick was published in 1927 both in London and in New York. Other books were The Master and the Disciple and Healing Everywhere (a collection of lectures). In 1932 he and his 2nd wife Ethel Tulloch Banks founded a healing ministry, the International Order of St. Luke the Physician, which still continues today. That is based in San Diego, California. Dr. Banks died on June 30, 1953 in San Bernardino, CA. https://theosophy.wiki/en/John_Gaynor_Banks http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/projects/counterpoints/Proc_2002/Pdf/A2.pdf