Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Daily Meditation
Dwell contemplatively on one’s unity with the one creative Presence until the felt sense of separation softens and a settled poise and confidence arises.
Sit still and relax. Slowly dwell on one statement — “There is one Life, that Life is God, that Life is my life now” — until you feel the union, not just say it. Rest in that oneness; stop reaching. Rise with the poise and carry it into the day.
What it is
Holmes paired the active work of treatment with a receptive daily practice: a short contemplative dwelling on one’s oneness with Spirit. Where treatment declares a specific good, this meditation declares nothing about circumstances — it simply realizes union with the one Life until the ordinary sense of being a small, separate self quiets.
Holmes did not ask people to worship a distant God but to “awaken to oneness with it.” His daily meditations are built around a single recognition repeated until felt: the Life that is God is my life now. “Be still, and know.” The fruit is not a manifestation but a state — poise, confidence, “an inward wholeness that all sense of fear, doubt and uncertainty vanishes.”
The Method
- Be still. Sit quietly, relax the body, let the surface mind settle. “Be still, and know” — stillness is power aligned, not blankness.
- Affirm the one Life. Take up a single oneness statement and dwell on it slowly: “There is one Life, that Life is God, that Life is perfect, that Life is my life now.”
- Realize union, not repetition. Don’t merely recite — let the meaning land. Feel that the same Presence that is the Life of all things is your own life, closer than breathing. “You are never alone; the all-powerful Presence walks with you.”
- Rest in it. Stop reaching. Let the sense of separateness loosen and a quiet confidence rise. Holmes’s meditations end in acceptance — you are already one with It; nothing has to be achieved.
- Carry the poise into the day. Rise gently and let the settled, unified attitude colour what follows. The practice is meant to season ordinary action, not to escape it. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are short attributed quotes / paraphrase from Holmes’s daily meditations and This Thing Called You; the numbered arc is a faithful rendering of his contemplative pattern.)
Source & Lineage
Ernest Holmes (1887-1960) wove daily meditation through The Science of Mind and devoted whole books to it — notably This Thing Called You (1948) and the meditation collections later gathered for Religious Science.
His contemplative voice draws on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Troward, and Christian mystical “practice of the Presence.”
Common refinements
Mechanical recitation. Speeding through the words without letting the meaning land yields little. Slow down; feel it.
- Hunting for an experience. Straining for a mystical “hit” creates tension. Holmes’s posture is acceptance, not pursuit.
- Treating it as problem-solving. This is not treatment for a goal — drop outcomes here and simply realize union.
- Skipping the carry-over. The value shows in how you meet the next hour; let the poise travel.