Ernest Holmes - A New Design for Living

Table of Contents

TARCHER/PENGUIN TITLES BY ERNEST HOLMES

JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
New York

PROVERBS 4:7

Our sincere thanks to scientist Gustaf Stromberg and to Omar John Fareed, M.D., for their suggestions relative to those particular portions of this book touching on their fields of endeavor, which, however, in no way implies their endorsement of all the authors have said. Also especial gratitude is due Gertrude Dooley and Helen Carmack of Science of Mind magazine for their assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.

How thrilled I am that a new edition of A New Design for Living is being published. My own beloved and well-used copy is missing its cover, and pages come loose in my hands as I review the underlining and marginal notes I made so many years ago.

A New Design for Living was written by Ernest Holmes near the end of his long and distinguished career as a spiritual philosopher, author, minister, speaker, and teacher. Published the year before he made his transition, it offers the fullness of his thinking about and application of the principles of Science of Mind to the conscious creation of a new and renewed life. In the book we witness a clarity of thought and precision of expression that make every sentence important, meaningful, and valuable to take within, contemplate, and then prove in daily living.We get here some of the best of what Ernest Holmes offers to the spiritual awakening of humankind.

A New Design for Living came to me in the early 1980s when I was a new student on the spiritual path questing for a relationship with God, harmony with myself, and the discovery of my lifes work. It was balm to my hurting and searching soul to read for the first time what has now become the living spiritual reality of my being, thinking, and functioningthat a new design for living begins with a willingness to cut ourselves loose from undesirable things of the past, including habits of thought and behavior that have caused forms of limitation and unhappiness to coalesce around us. Holmess words You can make the change and step out of what may have been an undesirable past into a bright future first called me to move beyond resignation over what I had considered to be unchangeable conditions and situations. He then indicated that the second step was to enlarge my viewpoint and expand what I thought was possible for me. After thirty years of active practice of Science of Mind, I see that all the life changes I have made began exactly this way.

What I have always loved about Ernest Holmes is that the principles he teaches are highly spiritual: they acquaint us with the abiding reality of God and the divine dimension of our life and individual being. At the same time, they are completely practical and applicable to everyday situations. For me, this has always been a deeply satisfying integration of emphases. Through Holmess work we are guided to truly live the spiritual life every moment and in every situation. A New Design for Living opened in and for me the realization that daily life can and should be lived as spiritual practicea matter of applying spiritual ideas to the things that arise in our experience. And what wonderful practice it has been! To remember in all circumstances that this is a spiritual universe in which the Presence, Power, Intelligence, and Love of God prevail and that I am one with all that God is; to acknowledge the unalterable wholeness of my innate divine being regardless of missteps taken or experiences of loss or challenge; to know that my spiritual mission in life is to express this truth; and to take responsibility for what moves through my consciousness, understanding that consistent thought in alignment with good harnesses a power that reveals a greater good in my life experience.

In the pages of this book are countless important spiritual realizations that open the doors of our perception and usher us into a new and expanded world of possibility. A few of them are:

With these new ideas I began to actively change my thoughts about myself, taking to heart and putting into practice Holmess admonition that We should have respect for ourselves, confidence in ourselves and an assurance that all is right with us in our world. Following his teaching about creating mental equivalentsclear, definite mental pictures of what we want in our livesl sat and wrote positive affirmative statements each day, accepting the good I desired as if it were already done. The first one, which was so very important to me, concerned my work in the world. I wrote over and over again, I work with people of like-mind on a world-transforming project. I allowed limiting, contradicting, and interfering thoughts that I had about the reality of this affirmation to surface in my awareness and then transformed these false ideas into more affirmations accepting my wholeness and my good. I wrote out my ideal scenewhat my life would look and feel like as I did the meaningful work my heart desired. I read this scene daily, establishing the truth of this as accomplished and experienced.Within a few months I was hired to be on staff with Terry Cole-Whittaker Ministries, and my life in spiritual work began.

That affirmation written so many years ago has been like a prayer wheel spinning in the center of all that I do, and its creative agency continues to this day. For the last thirty years I have walked an expanding path of self-expression and service, from those early days on staff, to beginning my own church and growing it (with lots of help) to 1,000 people on a Sunday, to the position I now hold as Community Spiritual Leader of United Centers for Spiritual Living. The good I accepted for myself has moved from the innermost to the outermost, from a deep inner realization to a lived reality that has taken me around the United States and to many places in the world to join with others in mutual service to spiritual living and the unfolding of life on our planet. Because I have successfully lived the principles of mental science and conscious creation I have been able to teach these principles with confidence. As I often say to groups and individuals, If I can do it, you can do it. This is the truth I know.