What is New Thought?

[Guest guest]

The New Thought Movement — not to be confused with New Age — is more

than a century old, and is practically oriented spirituality that

promotes fullness of all aspects of living, through positive

thinking, meditation, affirmative prayer, and other ways of realizing

the presence of God. New Thought includes Unity, Religious Science

(Science of Mind), Divine Science, and other groups and individuals.

A common saying in New Thought is Change Your Thinking, Change Your

Life.

New Thought is not a cult or a religion, rather a way of Life that is

practical, universal spirituality. It believes that the Divine called

by many names — God, Goddess, Great Spirit, Allah, Jehovah — is

personal to each person and lives within each of us. It does not have

a gender necessarily and some choose not to refer to God as He or

She. New Thought honors the divinity and wisdom in each religion and

spiritual tradition.

New Thought believes there were — and are — many great teachers —

Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed — and that each of us has this capacity.

New Thought is not, as many believe, a name or expression employed to

define any fixed system of thought, philosophy, or religion, but is a

term used to convey the idea of growing or developing thought.

" New Thought " is the result or creation of perpetually advancing

mind.

Change and growth are the silent mandates of divinity.

Back of all, unseen yet all powerful, is the one universal law or

cosmic urge, forever pushing and projecting man forward into higher

physical, mental, and spiritual development.

" Through spiritual evolution are we led to God. "

No two individuals are alike or think alike. Duplicates have never

been discovered in all the broad domain of nature. Scientists tell us

that even the molecules of which our bodies are composed differ one

from the other.

" No two men in creation think alike,

No two men in creation look alike, No two men in creation are alike,

No worlds or suns or heavens, but are distinct and wear a separate

beauty.''

Language, either written or spoken, is but a symbol, and at best an

imperfect vehicle to convey thought. … " Thought is deeper than

speech; feeling deeper than thought; souls to souls can never teach

what to themselves is taught. "

As each morning bathes the earth in new light, so each returning day

and every recurring season bring new meanings and understandings to

the soul.

The greatest gift from God to man is a growing mind, one that expands

from day to day as the light of truth breaks upon it.

As man renews his mind and reaches out for larger conceptions of

truth, his understanding is enlarged, he gains new viewpoints, his

expanded thought is translated and externalized into life, he grows,

he advances, he comes into a closer union with God.

We all live, move and have our being in an atmosphere of truth; truth

is only assimilated by the individual.

Principles and laws are changeless, but our understanding of them

changes as our minds gain new conceptions of truth and as they grow

and develop. Only as the mind dwells on principles can it advance to

a larger understanding of truth and higher conceptions of life. … To

gain higher conceptions of the principles and laws underlying the

universe is the real work of man.

Man is either progressing or receding; spiritually and mentally he

cannot stand still.

Man can grow into a knowledge of his relationship with God and reach

out toward the divine goal, only as he renews his mind, only as he

enlarges his conception of what is within his consciousness, only as

he presses forward into a higher spiritual and mental development.

Man grows only as he enlarges his thoughts. How can his thoughts be

enlarged except as he takes on the new? By no other process can he

enlarge his conceptions and understanding of life. As his ideals

expand he comprehends more truth, he moves forward, he extends his

visions, he grows, he sees beauty, harmony, and law in all created

things.

Hence New Thought is a synonym for growth, for development, for

perpetual and eternal progress. It recognizes the superior and

excellent in man; it deals not with limitations; it sets no bounds to

the soul's progress, for it sees in each soul transcendental

faculties as limitless as infinity itself.

New Thought may be said to possess one fixed creed, that of an

eternal search for truth. It is anchored to that one thought. … It

realizes that attainment of truth is a process of evolution, growth,

and development.

Man can acquire truth only as he is mentally and spiritually prepared

to receive it. New Thought is anchored to the idea of finding the

good and the beautiful in life, the development of latent

possibilities in man, and that law reigns supreme in the universe.

Anchored to these principles, New Thought moves forward in its quest

for more truth, in its search for greater light that leads upward and

onward toward a unity with God. It has not come to eradicate the old,

except as the old fades away before the advancing light of the new.

However, we have been told that it is dangerous to put new wine into

old bottles lest the bottles may break. New Thought is constructive,

not destructive. It is not here to tear down, but to build up.

Its goal is the understanding of life, of man, and a conscious unity

of man with God. If its adherents differ, it is only in methods and

not in the end sought. It does not enjoin methods. There are many

avenues leading to truth. The arc-light sends out a myriad of rays,

but they all lead to the one light.

The adherents of New Thought worship the omnipresent God, the

indwelling God, in whom we live, move, and have our being. They do

not conceive of God as distant or separated from man, but as a

universal Spirit permeating all nature, finding its highest

expression in man.

No better conception of the God of New Thought can be expressed than

was given by Pythagoras to the world six centuries before the

Christian era. Listen to the great message:

" God is the Universal Spirit that diffuses itself over all nature.

All beings receive their life from Him. There is but one only God,

who is not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the world,

beyond the orb of the universe; but being Himself all in all, He sees

all the beings that fill His immensity, the only principle the light

of heaven, the father of all. He produces everything. He orders and

disposes of all things. He is the reason, the life and motion of all

things. "

New Thought teaches that the revelation of God to man is a continuous

process through nature, through reason, the whispering of intuition

through the events and experiences of life. …the desire to come into

harmony with God.

To teach man to come into a conscious realization of the divinity

within, and the unity of man and God, so that out of the sublimity of

his soul he can say with the Gentle Master, " The Father and I are

one, " is the supreme purpose and meaning of New Thought.