Day 138: Everything is Mind

268-270:4

The testimony of the material senses is neither absolute nor divine.

Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.

2010

Day 131: Creation

255-257:3

All things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man.

2010

Day 104: Disrobe Error

201-203:6

We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us.

2010

Day 86: Physiology

165-166:32

I didn’t want to focus too much on the exact problems but instead remember the general line of thought so I reshaped this sentence to allow me to stick in any problems:

You say that ___, ___, and ____ cause distressed stomachs and aching heads. Then you consult your brain in order to remember what has hurt you, when your remedy lies in forgetting the whole think, for matter has no sensation of its own, and the human mind is all that can produce pain.

2010

Day 58: Christian Science on 1 Page

107:1-109:31

Mary Baker Eddy presents a complete picture of Christian Science with two separate paragraphs.

It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sensation nor life, that human experiences show the falsity of all material things, and that immortal cravings, “the price of learning love,” establish the truism that the only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot suffer.

…the opposite of Truth, – called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, – is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit.

2010

Day 54:

100:1-101:32

What if Mesmer got it all wrong from the beginning? What if the mutual power he saw was actual us reflecting God’s love but he didn’t know or understand it so he took it in a different direction.

What if these other theories (outside C.S.) are people who where on the cusp of something spiritual (truly God inspired), but they just couldn’t figure it out?

What if that happens everyday?

2010

Day 32: Human Affection

56:1-58:4

Last year while reading, I had a realization that Christianity, Spirituality, and God were really about how I interact with my fellow inhabitants on this planet and less about my internal composition. That would be the demonstration part of religion. Mary Baker Eddy writes:

Human affection is not poured fourth vainly, even though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, enlarging, purifying, and elevating it.

Her follow-up:

…Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its winds for heaven.

I like how this reiterates one of the lines of the spiritual interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer:

And Love is reflected in love

2010

Day 4: My Motive for Prayer

1-3:3

In this reading, Mary Baker Eddy asks what the reader’s motive is for prayer. She gives four options:

• make ourselves better
• benefit those listening
• enlighten infinite mind
• heard of men

The way she phrases this, all four options are incorrect motives for prayer. However, the first one, to make ourselves better, is exactly what I’m aiming for -- to be more spiritual by understanding God.

At the beginning of the chapter, she lays out an interesting equation (or at least that’s the way I thought of it):

absolute faith = spiritual understanding = unselfed love

My desire for personal spiritual progress is currently taking front seat to unselfed love. Probably need to correct that.

2010

Day 1: Two Instructions to Begin

vii:1-viii:32
This is the second year I’m going to read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy according to the journal.

When I started the journal last year, I didn’t know what I wanted to accomplish other than greater spirituality through Christian Science. The temptation came to me to not continue another year however the question was more subtly should I continue studying Christian Science. Since my answer was yes and this journal is helping me be consistent in my prayer and practice -- I’m going to continue. To say I have more to understand and learn is an understatement.

The two things that have been on my mind lately are personal sense as discussed in the Trial and the testimonies in Fruitage. So that’s my mindset going into this new year.

In this reading, I found two instructions from Mary Baker Eddy. The first is that man must live in obedience to divine Principle. The second instruction is that the discords of corporeal [personal] sense must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense.

2010

Day 288: The Purpose of Love

579-581:7

I was a little worried about this chapter, The Glossary. It’s just a dictionary. What insight could it really have? But even on the first few pages, I marked a couple of things.

• Spiritual sense = original meaning
• The purpose of Love is to create trust in good.
• An adversary is one who opposes, denies, disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and truth.

Day 279: Sweet & Bitter

558-560:5

Today is the first day of the chapter, The Apocalypse. Not my favorite chapter. Mary Baker Eddy makes a point in this reading that when reading this book, at first it will taste sweet when it heals but the Truth, afterward, may be bitter.

I’m either not there yet or past that point. It seems like as I read the book now, I understand it differently every time and I’m having different challenges in my life to apply it to. The whole experience has mellowed into wanting to understand, then understanding.

Although, the farther into the book I get, I’m getting excited  -- only because new ideas are jumping out of the text.

Are you in a sweet or bitter moment?

Day 250: Genesis

501-503:5

Just as a side note, I wonder why the chapter of Creation and the chapter of Genesis or so far apart in this book. It seems they would either be intertwined or consecutive.

I read an article in the Sentinel a while back where the author said he always went back to the idea of creation, Genesis, for his spiritual authority in Christian Science. He did a great job of explaining it – so much so that I agreed and remember it to this day. So this is what I expect I will get out of this chapter, but in my own way.

Today’s section includes just:

Genesis i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

I’ve thought about the beginning/only relationship explained for this passage before. The key phrase that caught me in today’s reading is:

The creative Principle … is God.

This phrase as two meanings to me. One, the obviously intended Principle is God. But the second one focuses more on the word creative. So many times (like right now!), I’m facing a situation that seems hopeless, and impossible to change, and I’m sitting on the sidelines, not even sure what to do. This phrase reminded me that not only is there one solution (G0d), but that solution is creative – my limited scope of possible solutions doesn’t count. God is creative Principle. The right solution will be found. Definitely a Go Team! moment for me.

Day 235: Idolatry and Ritualism

465-466:31
I spent some time yesterday thinking about single ideas not having an element of error. I thought about how we are all ideas and we aren’t old or new ideas just familiar (old) or unrecognized (new). I got caught up in the spiritual attributes of ideas and let my thoughts just take me to new places. It was nice to have a single, clear idea I could do that with.
Today is the first day of Recapitulation. If you have heard of class instruction or taken it, you know this is the chapter that is the basis for the class. When I figured out what Recapitulation meant, years ago, I was a little disappointed. So, no secret handshake will be revealed, just a summary of ideas already covered. The question/answer format is nice and easy to follow. [I wish class instruction was now just a private blog to read and make notes with links to the books.]
The idea I grabbed from today’s reading is something that has been nagging me anyway:

idolatry and ritualism are the outcome of all man-made beliefs

You could almost hear someone say: “Let’s not think, let’s just do it the way it was done before.” Now that I’m checking my thinking, I’m looking for those little spots in my thought-conclusions that are based on idolatry and ritualism – purposeless stuff that might keep me from listening to God.

Day 224: Guidance

443-445:18

This is the first day of Teaching Christian Science. The two ideas that struck me were Mary Baker Eddy’s tone and her clear guidance. Some places in the book, she is very forceful but in these two pages, I didn’t read that. I read compassion and guidance, as if she were speaking to me in a class.

Right off the bat, she says:

under ordinary circumstances a resort to faith in corporeal means tends to deter those, who make such a compromise, from entire confidence in omnipotent Mind as really possessing all power.

There are other places in the book where she says this differently but you get her general attitude here.

There are so many rules listed in these two pages, I was thinking about making a list but I wouldn’t want anyone to stray into the argument of the letter versus the spirit of the rule.

She does discusses the ethics of Christian Science and mentions mental assassins then defines the term:

mental assassins: someone who attempts to kill morally and physically

Day 184: Mary Magdalene and the Pharisee

362-364:31
Today is the first chapter in Christian Science Practice. Mary Baker Eddy retells the story of Mary Magdalene and the story within that story of the debtors. Toward the end of the reading, MBE makes the point do we study Christian Science as the Pharisee who loved little or as Mary Magdalene did with a meekness.
I hate to say this but I feel as though I am somewhere in the middle, not where I want to be and not where I was.
How does anyone gain a deeper spiritual insight while still being of this world? And while being of this world, how do you not be in it?

Day 174: Objections

341-343:5

This is the first few pages of Chapter 11, Some Objections Answered.

I'm going to read this as though I am one of those with objections in order to see if I have lingering doubts or lack of understanding. I underlined:

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.

Day 138: Semi-metaphysics

268-270:4

There are times, like today, that I think how many times have I read these pages and missed this idea? I'm so grateful for journal developed by The Mother Church. This read of Science and Health has been so much clearer and easier because of the slow pace and short readings.

These two pages are the first pages of the chapter titled Science of Being. The word that popped out to me was semi-metaphysics. Semi-metaphysics is the belief in both matter and Spirit, as a progression away from a completely materialistic belief system.

Then Mary Baker Eddy defines metaphysics:

Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.

Then in the next paragraph, MBE delves into these ideas of Soul as:

perfectly real and tangible to spiritual consciousness, and they have this advantage over the objects and thoughts of material sense, -- they are good and eternal. 

She ends this reading with:

One only of the following statements can be true: [1] that everything is matter; [2] that everything is Mind. Which one is it? 

Day 131: On the first day...

255-257:3

Chapter 9 is titled creation and just as creation only took seven mythical days, the chapter is read in seven days. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be deeply symbolic or lightly comical.I choose the later.

After reading the section for today, the word Love struck me because in the last 53 pages (last chapter), divine Love wasn't so much on the page to me as concepts and ideas about materiality versus spirituality. A lot was covered in 53 pages but divine Love was not front and center. Or that is the impression I have. This chapter is going back to divine Love immediately in asking the question: Who is the creator? 

The exact section that caught my eye was:

Mind, not matter, is the creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man. 

And then,

No form nor physical combination is adequate to represent infinite Love. 

In this chapter, I hope to dig deeper into divine Love.

Day 104: Our beliefs

201-203:6

I've read these two pages so many times in the last few days that I feel like I'm probably reading them too much. When I think of the chapters that come to mind easily and that I remember enjoying, this isn't one of them. Some how the middle of the book eludes me. So you may be surprised when I say that the only think that stood out to me in these two pages is:

Our beliefs about a Supreme Being contradict the practice growing out of them.

There are lots of good ideas in these two pages but they seem normal, run of the mill, if there is such a C.S. thing as that. But this statement seems packed with issues -- at least for me.

The next sentence I underlined, I also did the listy:

In the Science of Christianity, Mind -- omnipotence -- [1] has all-power, [2] assigns sure rewards to righteousness, and [3] shows that matter can neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy.

Day 86: Physiology

165-166:32

Today is the first two pages of chapter 7, Physiology. Mary Baker Eddy starts discussing Mind, mortal mind, body, and physicians so in some regard this feels like a continuation of the last chapter -- or at least a good transition to this one. This is a chapter I usually read when I'm working on a physical challenge although

The thing I noted

Mind is all that [1] feels, [2] acts, or [3] impedes action.

 It's the last point that caught my attention -- impedes action. Why would God impede action? What action would God impede?

Maybe I'm reading to closely and literally. I think I'll edit the sentence: Mind is all. I'll work with that for today.