In this reading, everlasting life is defined as:
a present knowledge of God and himself [Jesus], – the knowledge of Love, Truth, and Life.
So more work for me in controlling my thought. Then:
the stronger never yields to the weaker, except through fear or choice
This is going to be one of my favorite quotes from the book for now. Is this original to MBE or is she paraphrasing?
If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush out happiness, health, and manhood.The second area of age I've been praying about is loosing the use of my body or mind through was can only be described as culturally accepting aging. MBE says:
No faculty of Mind is lost.And:
Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite.
I don’t know if I’m following Mary Baker Eddy so closely that the questions in the book are falling into my life or the questions from my life are running ahead and jumping into the book. I’m going to assume this is a good step.
I’ve been thinking about my general mental state. Things tend to bother me and I brood on them. Then I stupidly act on them: say something dumb, do something selfish or thoughtless. So my mental skills need work. Mary Baker Eddy listed those things I’ve been working on (how did she know?):
Christian Science commands man to master the propensities, -- [1] to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, [2] to conquer lust with chastity, [3] revenge with charity, and [4] to overcome deceit with honesty.
Then something to think about as I try to calm my mind:
Inharmony of any kind involves weakness of suffering, – a loss of control over the body.
This reading continues Mary Baker Eddy’s explanation of healing both sin and disease with the same method. She explains mortal existence as:
You command the situation if you understand that mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the truth of being.
There is a level of self-deception that looks a whole lot like self-preservation but I’m working on that.
Things are better with my daughter. Yesterday’s intense CS reading was worth it. Today’s reading gave me some insight into what may have happened.
Mary Baker Eddy uses the term self-mesmerism (hypnotism) to explain sickness. I thought her exact word choice was very interesting and made me think of my recent challenge with my daughter:
self-mesmerism…is believed that the misfortune is a material effect
This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is only a false sense of matter, since matter is not sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opinions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.
Mortal mind is "the strong man," which must be held in subjection before its influence upon health and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we can despoil "the strong man" of his good, -- namely, of sin and disease.
Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they [1] forsake discord, [2] acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and [3] abandon their material beliefs.
By lifting thought above error, or disease, and contending persistently for truth, you destroy error.
Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason whyTo:
Declare your daughter is perfect and understand the reason why
the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claim over mortality and disease.
An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceitful person should not be a nurse. The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, -- receptive to Truth and Love.
Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unnecessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never startle with a discouraging remark about recovery, nor draw attention to certain symptoms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name of the disease. Never say beforehand how much you have to contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient's thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis is passed.
Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. Good has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.This is a direct answer to this challenge and speaks almost in the same language/word choice my daughter used.
Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's government.I feel like I was firm in my understanding over the last year and then in the last month I ignored it while it got worse but I'm praying about it now so I know it will turn around.
The admission that any bodily condition is beyond the control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from helping himself, and enthrones matter through error.At this point, I'm feeling enslaved, not enthroned but I get the general idea.
Is there no divine permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, with Truth and Love?Funny she should mention discord...how did she know.
therefore meet the intimation with a protest
rise to true consciousness of Life as Love
Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take.
perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors;
In this reading, Mary Baker Eddy says to argue against sickness and deny it’s legitimacy as you would sin:
Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false process of mortal opinions which you name law…
I like the idea of a higher sense of justice as part of spiritual growth. She goes on to give some specific steps:
Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin.
And:
Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.
Today’s reading covers food and how it doesn’t control the body. I remember so many conversations with other CSers in college about this area of thought. We loved food: rich, yummy food. We philosophized on the CS perspective of our love of food. Oddly, at the same time, I was struggled with a type of eating disorder:
It is a law of so-called mortal mind, misnamed matter, which causes all things discordant.
I’m grateful to Mary Baker Eddy, in passages as these, where she discusses how the future might look one day on this topic but shouldn’t look that way right now. It gives me insight into my own areas of growth regarding food (or materiality) without heading off in the wrong direction.
There is alot her to consider and prayer about:
We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought that we have transgressed a material law and must of necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure ourselves with the law of Love. God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion. If man seems to incur the penalty through matter, this is but a belief of mortal mind, not an enactment of wisdom, and man has only to enter his protest against this belief in order to annul it. Through this action of thought and its results upon the body, the student will prove to himself, by small beginnings, the grand verities of Christian Science.
While the specific is important, sometimes the generic is key:
You must understand you way out of human theories…or you will never believe that you are quite free…
In this reading, Mary Baker Eddy works to break the barrier between the idea of healing sickness and the idea of healing sin. Or maybe she takes it one step further in applying the concept of prevention to both. Anyway, the point is that they are, in Christian Science, indistinguishable and just errors of mind.
Half way through the first sentence, I mentally finished it although not from memory but just working it out myself:
If disease can attack and control the body without the consent of mortals, sin can do the same, for both are errors, announced as partners in the beginning.
Then some fuzzy editing at the bottom of page 379:
Fevers are errors of various types…drawn on the body by a mortal mind.
Then the instructions from MBE that I need to follow better:
Be no more willing so suffer the illusion that you are sick or that some disease is developing in the system, than you are to yield to a sinful temptation on the ground that sin has its necessities.
I’m going to take three quotes from this reading and rearrange them with no disrespect meant. For me, it just made better sense:
God never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord.
The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health; also a fear that Mind is helpless to defend the life of man and incompetent to control it.
Remove the leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind, and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the morbid or exciting action of any organ.
I’ve been listening for angel messages. I heard this quote this morning in Church:
We must begin, however, with the more simple demonstrations of control, and the sooner we begin the better. (429:4)
The idea of a simple demonstration as a place to begin caught me. The simple demonstration I know I need to make is my own negative mental arguments inside my head. They are worse than pointless.
It is simple because no one else is involved and my body is not an obstacle to the demonstration. And when Mary Baker Eddy mentioned hourly and daily, this mental argument is what comes to mind. So I was pleasantly surprise when what I marked in the reading continued this line of thought:
No person is benefited by yielding his mentality to any mental despotism or malpractice. All unscientific mental practice is erroneous and powerless, and should be understood and so rendered fruitless.
And then how this idea applies physically:
The diseases deemed dangerous sometimes come from the most hidden, undefined, and insidious beliefs.
Then a simple idea:
…there is more life and immortality in one good motive and act…
Then instruction on the solution:
Therefore the efficient remedy is to destroy the patient’s false belief by both silently and audibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious being, – representing man as healthy instead of diseased, and showing that is it impossible for matter to suffer, to feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick.
This reading dealt with disease. It is an important point for me to getting a better grasp on as I work with the fallacy of material law (from Day 188). Mary Baker Eddy starts by discussing healing of disease versus healing of sin:
If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in darkness as to the physical exemption which Christianity includes, then we must have more faith in God on this subject and be more alive to his promises.
So a challenge to myself – be more alive to his promises. I’m going to look for inspiration for that.
Next:
The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources of man’s enslavement.
And the answer to fear of disease:
Establish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the oppressed organ.
So lots of ideas I need more inspiration for.
Yesterday was a really good day. I didn’t have a journal entry here but I did have a household where children behaved, parents didn’t fight. Usually on our busiest days, I’ve a short temper and rush. Yesterday was so full, even my husband lost track but we all got along and everything got done and we had fun. Yeah!
I’ve been thinking lately about the matter illusion. I can’t get around matter, regardless so today’s reading helped:
Matter is not self-sustaining. Its false supports fail one after another. Matter succeeds for a period only by falsely parading in the vestments of law.
The idea of law having a hold on me in right on. So I’m going to work on that idea of the falsity of material law. Or something along those lines.
And:
If pride, superstition, or any error prevents the honest recognition of benefits received, this will be a hindrance to the recovery of the sick and the success of the student.
I try to be grateful for each small (and big) thing (and non-thing) in my life. But I probably don’t see everything I should be grateful for so I’ll redouble my efforts on that.
When my days are challenging then I read the journal pages, I feel like Mary Baker Eddy is speaking just to me and she knows what I need and what is going on in my life. Not every day, but definitely on the crazy ones:
No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it, any more than he is morally saved in or by sin. It is error even to murmur or to be angry over sin. To be every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well as physically.
And:
Physicians examine the pulse, tongue, lungs, to discover the condition of matter, when in fact all is Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind, and this so-called mind must finally yield to the mandate of immortal Mind.
It is rare that I read something in S&H and am surprised that I don’t remember reading it before but it happened just now. This is totally new to me and how beautiful it is:
…like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.
I seem to be either totally on topic with Mary Baker Eddy in the readings (granted, this is rare) or on my own train of thought, working through my own issues. Today is the later for me. I’ve been contemplating harmony lately as my life seems to not have much of it at this point. I assume this is a momentary period that will end but it seems to be going on for a while. Here is what I marked in the readings:
“Take no thought for your life.”
And:
The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father’s loving-kindess.
In the first quote, instead of thinking about life as an infinite state of being, I was just thinking about my day-to-day thoughts, actions, feelings. And that I shouldn’t take thought of those at all. Sort of a code phrase for “Don’t worry.”
The second quote was a list of things I needed and didn’t know it until I read the sentence.
Today is the last day of this chapter. The two statements that caught my eye are:
You are bringing out your own ideal.
And:
A human perception of divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order to be Science and subject to demonstration.
These two statements have a lot to teach me.
Even though you aver that the material senses are indispensable to man’s existence or entity, you must change the human concept of life, and must at length know yourself spiritually and scientifically.
In this reading, Mary Baker Eddy went back to the discussion of original creation and original creator. This caught my eye:
Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in support of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so antagonistic that the material thought must become spiritualized before the spiritual fact is attained.
This is something I’ve been thinking about myself lately. MBE said it better, of course.
These two pages seemed like a personal rebuke for me. Consistency is a lesson I seem to learn over and over; otherwise named inconsistency. I especially like the comparison of words/works to inconsistency/consistency.
I’ve been thinking lately if meditation, which I’m not that good at, would help my CS focus. Any CSers out there that meditate?
In this section, Mary Baker Eddy writes about calming a child’s fear about imaginary ghosts. It’s an analogy, she could have meant any material fear but ghosts are particularly frightening to little children so the analogy is that much more poignant. She writes:
In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, because there are no such things. If belief in their reality is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be restored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into nothingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor.
People who read this have an interesting reaction: I’ve experienced a ghost myself – how can you tell me they aren’t real? This book is about Christian Science and spiritual reality, not about ghosts. If you want to believe in ghosts because you have experienced them – good for you. But how is that different from believing in sickness, or sin? It’s not.
Go back to the analogy and replace the word ghost with anything you are afraid of, in pain from, etc. The paragraph is still truthful. The idea is the same. One material sensation is just as unreal as the next.
I marked several things in this reading but I’m only going to cover two. Please read this section for yourself several times. There are lots of grains of thought here.
…that life-link forming the connection through which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and Truth destroys error.
Jesus was the life-link or the original demonstration. There were lots of demonstrations, but this was God’s demonstration to us. I never thought of Jesus that way before, as a CS demonstration.
When we lose faith in God’s power to heal, we distrust the divine Principle which demonstrates Christian Science, and then we cannot heal the sick.
I take this as a guide to check my own thinking and examine the results of my demonstration – to weigh my faith.
The dream that matter and error are something must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness. The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmonious unreal.Behold the nothingness is a strong statement but one I need to grasp. The human senses and even mortal mind can paint a compelling picture where it is very had to think what I’m seeing, feeling, thinking – is nothing. Something to work on.
I deny His cooperation with evil, because I desire to have no faith in evil or in any power but God, good.When Mary Baker Eddy writes in first person, I take notice, since she does it so little in the book. She wasn’t one for gentle statements. I should learn something from her there.
Two essential points of Christian Science are, that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the author of sickness.Well said.
Disbelief in error destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth.and:
Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for spiritual understanding.My take on these are: If I’m not gaining the progress I want, I need to search out any remaining error and material beliefs.
In yesterday’s reading, Mary Baker Eddy wrote that mere opinion is valueless. Well, today, here I am giving my opinion to her question in today’s reading:
Why should one refuse to investigate this method [Christian Science] of treating disease?
She states that allopathy and homoepathy are fashionable but I, from my own experience, think there is a deeper issue. Prayer and understanding are work. To remember why it is that God made us whole and how we came to that understanding means we have to take time (a few minutes? a few hours?) to go down that road again, if we have forgotten it. For a non-CSer, they have to take time to get there. Who has that kind of time? It seems faster to take a pill, let the doctor do the thinking. I don’t think it was fashion that made Christian Science healing appear less, I think it was the commitment it required. I speak from experience. I don’t want a lot of work, I just want to be healed. I’m not proposing CS doesn’t heal, it does and has for me. But there might be more than fashion to the reason. What do you think?
Meekness is mentioned several times in the reading. I gather that I might not have a deep enough understanding of the word to figure out why this word is being used. The point that I knew I missed was:
submission to divine will
In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless.I might go one step farther and say it can be harmful to someone's progress to throw my own opinion on top of their work, or the other way around. But Mary Baker Eddy's point was works, not words. So in that spirit, I will continue to listen.
He is joining in a conspiracy against himself, --against his own awakening to the awful unreality by which he has been deceived.
never to admit that sin can have intelligence or power, pain or pleasure
life its own proof of harmony and God
For true happiness, man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love;
Christian Science, rightly understood, leads to eternal harmony.I need to go back through this chapter and find those sections dealing with harmony and read them again.
The dissection and definition of words, aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not scientific.Why else would someone dissection and define words? What was she really saying here? What do you think?
