Wore To Thinking Than Thought’

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31029, 7 April 1966, Page 12

Wore To Thinking Than Thought’

“Thinking is not just having thoughts’’—it is learning to listen and pray, to choose the thoughts that “bring the greatest good to the greatest number.” How much of the time are we really thinking? This was the question explored by Miss N. Poling, a Christian Science lecturer, who spoke to a Christchurch audience yesterday under sponsorship of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Christchurch. “Thinking that is reflected from man's divine source—from God —brings courage, intelligence, strength, and heal-

;iing to any situation,” said, > | Miss Poling. “The computing machine jean never begin to approach! •j this kind of thinking.” she said. “It cannot give us the ; internal facts of God and man. Right ideas come to us from j . the intelligence that is divine! J mind. Right Idea i “The right idea we need has r always been present. We don’t I originate it: it comes to us . through thinking and listenling. We need to listen for the 1 truth.” That was why real thinking was so much like prayer. It ’ involved the “art of listening," and “learning how to choose between truth and error, between thoughts that come from God and mere human beI lief.” That was the only sure basis “for knowing what is true, what is right, and what is good," Miss Poling said. i It was not a matter of '■ “mere positive thinking.” • The question was: “Do we I- possess of ourselves the ability to think—or is this f power derived from a source o greater than ourselves?” e Miss Poling said that “the e greatest thinker who ever i, lived, Christ Jesus, said ‘I can e mine own self do nothing.’ ” a That was true for all, she s said. “To be individual, to use

Judgment, to weigh one’s thoughts and actions and have a definite goal in life requires thinking based on the source |of man's being, on God. j “When men want righteousness, when they need to settle their differences in a world flooded with conflicting opinions—when they need lasting health, intelligence to do their work, and courage to face the vastness of eternity—only God can supply the answers. “Jesus said, ’Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ ” People should let truth be the substance of their thoughts and acts, she said “We recognise this truth as the coming of the Christ to human consciousness the spirit of truth and love" embodied in the life of Jesus, she said. That “spirit of love” was the mark of any real thinker, said Miss Poling. “Divine Love is truth, and to express truth or intelligence, we must also express Divine Love. Nothing Alone “The one who thinks proves this. He proves that no-one can live to himself, work by himself, play by himself. No-one can keep his happiness to himself. No-one can love himself alone. Love must be shared. Such is the science of being. “It doesn’t take actual thinking to have a quarrel with someone—to get angry or feel resentful, to condemn or hate,” she said. “But it does take thinking to have understanding and to love — thinking that starts with divine love and the desire to see man as he really is, inseparable from the principle of his being, the man who lives forever as a witness to intelligence, eternal truth. “This is the man we all really are," she added. “In the light of this truth, we are not material beings with limited minds trying to think, trying to reach decisions, trying to solve problems from a material basis. “Each one of us is in reality an idea in the mind that is God.” As people came to see and understand that, said the lecturer, it changed their conscious sense of being, and that, in turn, changed circumstances, events and bodily conditions. Miss Poling told of several cases where physical changes resulted from such prayer, including the healing of two children of deafness. “The computing machine has its place in human progress,” she said. “It frees men from mechanical work to do real thinking—thinking that establishes the facts of man's spiritual existence."