Through the ages there have always been people who have held fast to the light of love even when others were carried away by hatred, personal pride, arrogance and inner frustration. When others were fighting, rioting, or simply sinking into an oblivion of ignorance, these few have continued to believe in certain basic principles of life and to love their fellow man.
During the Dark Ages they were the enlightened ones, who preserved wisdom for better days. During times of crisis and confrontation, they have been the ones who continued to recognize the true meaning of life, and the reason for being.
They have been the great ones of history.
Love adds an extra dimension to the stature of any individual, and it is through love that civilization as a whole is carried forward into greater discoveries for the good of all people.
It is also through love that an individual gains true depth of understanding and an insight into the wisdom of the ages that is ours for the claiming.
“Supermind Power”
From the beginning, an unlimited storehouse of knowledge has awaited our discovery. But it is only revealed to those who learn to love. It is disclosed, little by little and step by step, to those who make their claim in love.
Love is the key to what Charles Fillmore, one of the great philosophers of the twentieth century, called “supermind power*,” the insight and understanding that goes beyond human reasoning and intellectual study into the intangible universe. There it plucks forth ideas that have never been tried but will work. It learns to see all things with a great understanding that brings forth the highest potential in every person, every thing, every part of God’s universe. It uncovers secrets and mysteries that have defied searchers for centuries.
TruthUnity Note: supermind power is referenced several places in Unity literature. This reference is from the chapter entitled "The Supermind" in Teach Us To Pray pages 100-103. Enter supermind in the searchbox for more references.
Love generates the energy that enables us to enter into a new sphere of thinking and comprehending, and it completely dissolves the hate, envy and other negative forces that interfere with the clear flow of pure knowledge.
But supermind power is not reserved for certain scientists, statesmen, ministers or others who are at present in positions of authority. It is available to every individual who is willing to enter a greater experience in living by learning to care deeply, about himself, about other people, about the future of his world, and about many other things which perhaps he can’t identify in words. The wisdom of the ages, the mysteries that have been hidden and are presently hidden from those who live in the limited world of things and intellect, are waiting to be discovered by anyone who is willing to pay the price of understanding, the price of love.
More than at any time in history, we are tapping the secret knowledge that has long been hidden. We have made greater strides in scientific discovery during the last 60 years than we did in all of the years recorded in history before then.
Love is the key, and breakthrough is the order of the day.
In laboratories, through their love of knowledge, their desire to know more and share more of good, scientists are delving into realms that, until a few years ago, didn’t exist in the library or the laboratory. But they always existed in the realms of supermind power.
Breakthroughs are the order of the day in scientific research. But breakthroughs in science are not enough. To keep up with the new world that is being developed through increased understanding and manipulation of the material world, we must learn to make the mental and spiritual breakthroughs that will enable us to live in peace and plenty in the new world we are building.
All too often, people confine their love to the material things that are being developed. They care deeply about more knowledge or more understanding in a particular area, and thus open new doors to success in this physical world. But there is more to love than this.
In order to use the discoveries that our modern scientific community is providing, we need enlightened minds illumined by love for all people everywhere, love for the highest ideals, love for service and goodness and a sharing of good.
“The Next Generation”
Someone has said, “A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman, of the next generation.”
This is the difference between the success of the moment and the lasting contribution of a great person. The politician loves himself, developing a certain image of power, prestige and wealth, and if he loves the image enough, he may be successful for a time in reaching his limited goals. A person of true stature in history loves the idea of contributing to the good of his world for those who are to follow, as well as those of his present generation.
One who truly learns to live happily, richly, in a spirit of universal oneness, will reap the rewards the first person seeks — power, prestige, and wealth, and he will also have the love power to use these things wisely. He will have his place of importance in his world or in history, but will not consider that reason enough for being. More important, he will find the true satisfaction of turning on the light of inner understanding and knowing his world from the highest possible viewpoint, knowing it in love.
“But,” you ask, “don’t you have to compromise a little to get ahead? Don’t you have to play politics just a little?” You may cite certain examples as your reason for asking, pointing to people who seemingly are successful in your world, though ruthless in their attitudes toward others.
Many people do seek to do the expedient thing, to take the action that is guided by self interest, rather than to go the way of caring that will lead to the long range benefit of all. One who works in this way may gain temporary objectives. He may be the object of adulation by others who are jealous of his position or success. But in the long run, if he doesn’t work from love in the broadest sense, sooner or later he outsmarts himself and defeats his own purposes.
The politician who makes campaign promises he has no intention of keeping may win for a time, but he won’t keep his position. So it is with the person who feels he can cheat or shortchange others, or put across a business deal that takes advantage of another. Temporarily, he may succeed, but in the long run no one ever gets away with anything. This applies, as well, to organizations which put self interest, or the interest of a few, above the welfare of the many. Sooner or later, they will be wiped out if they have no love.
Only the good, only that which is contributed to the many, in love, has lasting power. This is love’s law of balance:
The law of love works constantly to establish balance in God’s universe. No one ever “gets away” with wrong, and no one ever loses the good he contributes in selfless love.
The wrong has to be adjusted, and the good that is accomplished in love brings its own reward. This is nature’s law of balance.
The more you give to your world, through love, the more you will always have for yourself, without making selfish aims a part of the transaction at all.
A person who makes it his objective to contribute, rather than to take, to bless others rather than to grab for himself, not only succeeds in the long run in giving good to others, but he is repaid in many ways. One of the ways is through increased understanding, an ability to see things he might have missed with a lesser vision, a glimpse into the realm of supermind power, that vast reservoir of wisdom that includes all the secrets of life, love, joy, beauty, riches and goodness.
We know so little, and there is so much to be learned and experienced. There is so much to be lived. And love, the pure sense of caring, is the key that unlocks the wisdom of the ages.
Open the Closet Door
All too often we approach the whole idea of greater understanding in the manner of the college boy, who wouldn’t open his closet door.
His parents had done their best for him when they sent him off to college. They bought him a whole new wardrobe, beautiful and expensive clothes. He was well provided with everything the well-dressed college student could possibly desire and was the envy of the other boys in his dormitory. One of them told me the story.
Before he had been in college a month, the boy began to spend his time with a group who had given up bathing and chosen to live in a pair of blue jeans and sweat shirt, an outfit which wasn’t really acceptable to the group until it became properly dirty. He bought a pair of jeans and sweat shirt and wore them all the time, while the clothing his parents had provided hung, unused, in the closet.
Most people don’t choose to wear old, filthy clothing without ever changing. But many do live with old, worn-out thoughts, when they could be opening the closet door to the new and stimulating thoughts which await their use.
The more you use your mind to understand, comprehend, study, build and grow, the more proficient you become in making use of new ideas. You will soon discover that you have been richly provided with new ideas, new ways of doing things, new methods for meeting challenges, new wisdom that is exciting and challenging.
Your closet is full! The closet of your mind is simply overflowing with wonderful new areas of understanding and discovery. But you are the only one who is on the inside. You are the one who must open your own closet door and lay hold of the greater experience in thinking and learning that awaits you.
You don’t have to stay in ruts of old, out-moded habits of thinking. You can at any moment open the door and put on fresh new approaches to life and living, new and enthusiastic attitudes, a depth of understanding and comprehension beyond anything you have ever yet experienced. But in order to do it you must cast aside old ways of thinking and prepare yourself to receive the wisdom of the ages.
When you learn to love, you won’t be content with old thoughts and old attitudes. You will find that, almost without realizing it, you do open yourself to new ideas, you are more willing to see other people’s viewpoints, and you have a whole new outlook on your world, the people in it and even yourself.
When this happens, new ideas and concepts come into your mind so rapidly that you find it easy to become enthusiastic about the new light that each day will bring.
Never Too Old
And don’t think that your age, or lack of it, will determine your ability to tap the reservoir of knowledge within you. Age has nothing to do with it.
The wisdom is there, awaiting your discovery of it, and it will always be there, available to you, no matter how long you keep the closet door closed.
I know people in their thirties and forties who complain about their inability to remember certain things. They are in the rut of limited, habitual thinking, and they will never open the closet door of their minds until they begin to think “can” instead of “can’t.”
I also know a 90-year-old woman who likes to amuse herself by recalling long poems she memorized as a girl, when she was studying elocution.
She says, “It may not all come out the first time through, but it’s all there, in my mind, and by the time I have gone through it a few times, I have it complete.”
This is the attitude that will make you receptive to the things you need to know, the ability to remember what is there, stored in your mind, simply awaiting your recall.
But, in addition to the thoughts that you have consciously thought and filed away in your inner storehouse, there is also a wisdom that is beyond human knowing, beyond anything you have ever known up to this time. It is the wisdom of the ages. This is the store of wisdom which all great individuals tap when they make new discoveries or bring forth new plans for improving the lot of mankind. It is also the closet full of understanding that is worn by the genius or the one who excels in any particular accomplishment or field of endeavor.
This is the source of wisdom which enables you to know without knowing just exactly how you learned. This is the voice within you that agrees with a new idea that has just been presented and says, “Yes, that’s right,” even though you have no background information by which to judge.
There is a knowing that is beyond anything you can learn from books and teachers. It is the wisdom that is revealed to you from within. It awaits your discovery, but you must open the closet door.
This was the source of knowing that George Washington Carver tapped when he loved the lowly peanut and sought to discover its secrets. He knew there were many and varied uses for this nutlike seed, uses that would bring prosperity to the people he loved. At the time, no one else knew the secret. So he talked to the peanut and opened himself to the wisdom within him. As he worked, he became more and more intrigued by the mysteries of the peanut and finally came up with thousands of new products which utilized this little nut and blessed mankind in many ways. Not only that, but he didn’t stop working at what many consider retirement age, but continued to tap the secrets of the universal intelligence.
The more selfless the individual, the more wonderful and enlightening his discoveries and his contribution to the world.
But this isn’t a method that works only for scientists and leaders of the people. It will also work for you. It will teach you how to tap the source of wisdom within you. It will enable you to do things that may be considered impossible under normal circumstances. It will reveal the “how” of whatever part of knowing you are seeking at the moment.
A Four-Point Formula
The principle of wisdom is this:
When you love (an idea, a person or mankind in general), when you believe the answer is available to you, when you desire what is right and good for all concerned, and when you refuse to be in a hurry, your inner spirit of wisdom will reveal to you whatever you need to know.
This applies to different needs and different situations, but the law works. It will work for you when you work with it.
Notice that there are four parts, and each condition is important to the working of the whole.
First, you must love. The law works, even when you have not yet reached the point of selfless caring for all people. It works for scientists who love only the knowledge they seek. It works, because it is a principle.
If you love an idea or a desire to know or a project that is very close to your heart, you are taking the first step to receiving the answer you seek.
If you love a person, even though it is in a strictly personal way and confined to one only, you may receive whatever answer you seek. For instance, suppose someone you love very much is in danger, and you desire to know how to help him. Inner knowing will give you the answer, if you fulfill the conditions.
Of course, the most powerful approach is love for all people everywhere and the desire to render a service in a way that will bless the many.
The second condition is self-evident. If you don’t believe that there is an answer, if you don’t feel deeply that there is a higher source of wisdom than you have yet contacted, if you don’t expect something to be revealed, you wouldn’t hear the answer even if it were screaming at you. So you must believe.
You must not only believe that there is an answer. You must also know, with all of the depths of your being, that the answer can come to you, in particular. When you work with the law of wisdom, you do not run to first one and then another, asking, but you turn within yourself to the knowing that comes through you — not to you from another. In your mind, you must identify with your own ability to receive the knowledge from within yourself.
Third, you must desire to know for some good purpose. You cannot tap the wisdom of the ages in order to take advantage of others or to use it for selfish gain only.
Then there is one more qualification. You must not be in a hurry.
Remember, love power does not force. Hurry implies forcing, pushing, trying to make something happen quickly. Wisdom cannot be forced. Understanding can only come quickly when you are prepared, when you are ready to catch the idea when it appears. Wisdom is already there, instantly available to you. It can come forth at a moment’s notice, when you are ready for it, but hurry closes the door through which it appears.
Have you ever tried to dress hurriedly and found that your fingers seemed all thumbs? So it is with your thinking fingers. When you try to force wisdom, they become all thumbs and literally slow you down in your ability to know. But if you have fulfilled the other conditions and then relax, as you wait quietly and trustingly for the inner wisdom to be revealed, you may be sure of getting your answer.
And how does the answer come? It may be in the form of an idea, a new concept, a desire to do a certain thing. It may come with a flash of understanding that outlines a complete plan, or it may be revealed one small step at a time. But it will come.
Love—believe—desire the right answer for all—wait, relaxed, and you will find that you, too, can tap the secrets of wisdom within you.
You will find that your inner spirit of wisdom is equally effective, whether you are trying to learn how to improve on a recipe, buy a new automobile, solve a problem in human relationships or make new discoveries in the laboratory. It works, when you comply with the conditions. And when you learn to work with the inner knowing frequently, you will find answers come instantly, the moment you stop and ask the question of the spirit within you.
Wisdom Goes Shopping
One time my husband and I went shopping for a new automobile. We wanted the particular car that was right for us, at the right price, with good for all concerned in the deal, and we knew, from past experiences, that we would be guided in the whole transaction by the spirit of wisdom within us.
We loved the idea of the right car and the perfect right people as a part of the whole. We were sure that we would know, from within, when it was time to make our purchase. We very definitely wanted what was right and good for all concerned. Whenever we go shopping, we go with the idea that the deal must be right for the seller, as well as for us, and we work the same way when we sell. Finally, we were not in a hurry. We just wanted the right car in the right way at the right time.
After we had decided on the make of the car that we wanted, we visited a dealer who was located between our house and our office, stopping one day on the way home.
The salesman who approached us was very nice and impressed us favorably. He gave us the keys to the model we were considering and suggested we take a test drive, which we did. We liked the model, but not that particular car.
When we returned to the agency, the salesman was out on the used car lot with a couple. By the time he came in, we were running short of time, but told him we liked the model and would stop by again to talk to him.
We had every intention of coming back, but he was determined not to let us go. He had a contract already drawn up for the car we had just tried, and his face became redder and redder as he pushed the sale. He knocked $100 off. He asked what kind of a deal we could get somewhere else. He insisted that we make an offer. He did everything humanly possible to force us to sign.
Needless to say, he had shown us clearly that this was not the place to buy a car. He had taken on the semblance of an order book looking for a sale, rather than a warm, real person with some concern for our needs. We left and never went back.
Next, we went shopping at a dealer’s where we had previously purchased an automobile. The dealership had changed hands, but the salesman who greeted us was from the former regime. He was nice, and we found a car we liked very much, but the price seemed a little high in comparison with the last dealership.
The salesman said he was sure the owner would make the right deal with us, and he ushered us into the man’s office. As we went in, I received the thought that if he would increase our trade-in by $100, the price would be right for everybody concerned.
We sat down, and the owner sat and looked at us. Finally, my husband asked why we had been brought in there, if the owner wasn’t interested in bettering the deal the salesman had offered. The man continued to sit there, then said he wanted to sell us a car, but he had to make a profit.
On the way home we wondered whether we should pay the price, even though it did seem high, but after we heard a little more about the new owner of the dealership, we were glad we had not dealt with him. It seems that he had bragged when he bought the business that he wouldn’t give away cars as the previous owner had—he was out to make a big profit. He may make a larger profit on the cars he does sell, but if our experience is any criterion, he will sell fewer automobiles.
So far we had shopped at the places that seemed logical, for human reasons. One place was conveniently located. The other was a place where we had been treated well before. Now we asked the spirit of wisdom where to go next, and the answer came —an automobile agency in a nearby town, one we had heard advertised on the radio.
We went, and we bought. The first time we went there, our time was running short. So we told the salesman we would return in a couple of days, and we took down the information he had given us. We were impressed by the way he showed a genuine interest in helping us to find just the right car. He didn’t push, and he didn’t force. He just helped us select the right automobile and sold it to us at the right price —the price that was right for him and for us, too.
If we had any doubts, they would certainly have been dispelled when he delivered the car. After it had been serviced, he took us out for a test drive and introduced us to the gadgets which were unfamiliar.
All in all, he invested time, interest, joy and enthusiasm in his work, and he was selling cars! We went back to him the next time we were in the market for an automobile.
Wisdom will guide you in your shopping expeditions. Wisdom will help you to make right decisions. Wisdom will show you how to do the things that need to be done by you. Wisdom will take you into areas of understanding and growth that are beyond anything you can now imagine.
And love unlocks the door to the wisdom in you. Open the closet door, and know!
© 1986, Winifred Wilkinson Hausmann
All rights reserved by the author.
Reprinted with permission.
