Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Realizing the Infinite Self
Dwell contemplatively on the self as a channel open to the Infinite — drawing on an inexhaustible source rather than one’s small store — until the sense of limitation softens into a felt poise and sufficiency.
Be still. Hold the canal-and-ocean image: of myself, little; joined to the Infinite, inexhaustible. Realize the Infinite Self — “co-extensive with Spirit.” Draw, don’t strain; capacity grows by opening. Rest in the sufficiency. Rise and meet the day as an open channel, not a guarded reservoir.
What it is
This is Fenwicke Holmes’s receptive, contemplative practice, distinct from treatment: a quiet dwelling on the Infinite Self. Its governing image is his canal-and-ocean picture from the chapter “The Infinite Self” — the individual is like a canal that, of itself, holds only a little water, but which opens onto the ocean and so can draw on an inexhaustible supply.
The meditation is the deliberate opening of the channel: realizing that “we have attributes of being co-extensive with Spirit or God himself,” and that what we feel as our small, limited self is in fact continuous with the Infinite — its capacities “the background of our life and the possibilities of our being.” Where his brother Ernest’s dwells on “one Life… my life now,” Fenwicke’s accent falls on sufficiency through connection: the felt sense that you are not a closed reservoir to be rationed but an open channel to a limitless source — most vividly with love: “the more we love, the more we feel the power within us of further loving.” The fruit is poise and a quiet end to scarcity-feeling, not a manifestation.
The Method
- Be still and turn within. Sit quietly, relax, let the surface mind settle. The realization comes in stillness, not effort.
- See the canal and the ocean. Hold Fenwicke’s image: of myself I am a small channel; but I open onto the Infinite. Feel the difference between the little I seem to hold and the ocean I am joined to.
- Realize the Infinite Self. Dwell on “we have attributes of being co-extensive with Spirit” — the same creative intelligence that fills all things is the background of my own being. Let “limited self” loosen toward “self continuous with the Infinite.”
- Draw, don’t strain. Don’t try to generate peace or supply; realize you are open to an inexhaustible source. As with love — the more drawn, the more there is — capacity grows by opening, not by squeezing.
- Rest in the sufficiency. Let scarcity-feeling quiet into poise: there is enough, because the source is infinite and you are joined to it. Holmes’s posture is acceptance, not pursuit.
- Carry the openness into the day. Rise gently and meet the next hour as a channel left open, not a reservoir guarding its last drop. (Sourcing note: the quoted phrases — “co-extensive with Spirit or God himself,” “the more we love, the more we feel the power within us of further loving,” and the canal/ocean image — are short attributed quotes / paraphrase from “The Infinite Self” in The Law of Mind in Action; the numbered arc faithfully renders Fenwicke’s contemplative pattern.)
Source & Lineage
Fenwicke Lindsay Holmes (1883-1973) developed the “Infinite Self” theme in The Law of Mind in Action (1919), drawing on Troward, Larson, and the New Thought “practice of the Presence,” alongside his brother Ernest. The receptive realization of an inexhaustible inner source later resonated strongly in Japanese New Thought (Seicho-no-Ie).
Common refinements
Straining to generate. The practice is opening to a source, not manufacturing peace by effort. Draw, don’t squeeze.
- Mechanical imagery. Picturing the canal without letting the felt shift land yields little. Slow down until sufficiency is felt.
- Turning it into treatment. This is receptive realization of the Infinite Self — drop specific outcomes here.
- Skipping the carry-over. The value shows in meeting the next hour as an open channel; let the poise travel.