The New Thought Simplified · 29 of 38

Third Suggestive Lesson

The quickening perception of an all-embracing love sends a new thrill of life through sluggish minds and weak bodies. Every physical extremity gains something from the vital impulse.

I am at one with the Universal Good, and send out loving thought to all around me. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” It is the human summum bonum. As we embody its spirit we incarnate and express divinity. It is an all-surrounding atmosphere in which we live, even though unconsciously. In proportion as we send out love we receive it.

Love heals. It lifts us out of the baser planes of thought.

I love God and all humanity. I send out thought ministration to all about me. Thoughts are real forces—living messengers of power. Love thoughts, even when brought to bear upon our pains and trials, transform them and make them educational. “Love never faileth.” Its fruits are perennial.

As we cease to resist our supposed enemies,—personal and impersonal,— they, by a subtle law, turn about and serve us.

Insight

As we cease to resist our supposed enemies, they, by a subtle law, turn about and serve us — Wood is making the non-resistance argument that runs through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:39, resist not him that is evil) and through Tolstoy’s Kingdom of God Is Within You, which had been published in English in 1894 and was widely read in the same circles Wood addressed. The Taoist wu-wei makes a structurally similar claim: yielding has its own power, and forced opposition often strengthens what it opposes. The line about love thoughts when brought to bear upon our pains transform them is more directly Wood’s psychological contribution — reframing of difficulty as educational rather than antagonistic is a cognitive move that has been studied since under the heading of cognitive reappraisal.

Antagonistic thoughts manifest themselves outwardly in restlessness and disorder. As I radiate love in every direction it is reflected back to me. Through such an activity I build up the kingdom of heaven within. That kingdom includes health, harmony, and happiness.

“Love Thinketh No Evil.”