How to Approach the Spirit

If we wish to come to the Spirit for the healing of our wounds, let us come in peace and with spontaneous joy, for the Spirit is joy; let us come with thanksgiving also, for a thankful heart is in harmony with life. But we must come in quiet confidence, with an open and receptive mind, a believing heart, naturally, sanely, and expectantly. In this way, we are entering the portals of Reality, clad in garments of righteousness.

We often think what we require is money, friends and physical healing. After these things, do those, who are outside a knowledge of the Law, seek; and they do well, for we need all these things. But they are the effects of right relationships to life. All people need some form of healing. Most people are unhappy; few have any realization of permanent peace. We seek fragments, when the whole is at hand. How illogical to think that anything can rise higher than its source. The Universe is a perfect, undivided whole, and healing can take place only when one is unified with it. How can anyone, then, be healed in part? Let us seek wholeness above all else.

If we would come to the Universal Wholeness, we must approach it through the law of its own nature. This means that we must give our undivided attention to the spiritual unit back of all things. Since all else is included within this unit, we find our particular good only through unity with life. This conscious unity makes our mind receptive to completion, since Life Itself is complete. This perception is always an inner light, for the individual can only use such knowledge as he inwardly possesses. In reality, we know God or Truth, only as we ourselves embody God or Truth. AND SINCE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO EMBODY ANYTHING OUTSIDE OURSELVES, THIS KNOWLEDGE MUST BE AN INWARD LIGHT. The Truth Itself is Infinite, but we only embody the Infinite in degree. To the degree that we do embody Reality, we become poised and powerful.

Science of Mind - Big Book