Day 106: Specific Guidance

205:7-207:7

Day 95’s reading is about treatment (or thought that make up a healing treatment). Today’s reading is about specific guidance for our own actions, thoughts, and lives.

I’ve copied the text of these two pages and keep them on my mobile phone with me at all times.

I would love to know what pages have you marked as ***important and why?

2010

Day 145: Demonstrating the divine Principle

282:3-284:3

Here is what I underlined:

The divine Principle, or Life, can not be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the understanding, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a straight line a sphere.

To demonstrate Science, in these two pages, is about understanding that Mind and matter don't mix. Ever.

Back in the beginning of the book, Mary Baker Eddy wrote about understanding and demonstrating Christian Science. The topic of understanding was dealt with as an opposite concept of blind belief. And then the idea was, as I read it, when I understand I rise above blind belief and can demonstrate CS.

OK. So I'm now at the point where I understand. It's a superficial understanding, not a deep, complete rewrite of my thoughts. So I have more work to do (obviously) but some of the early chapters are beginning to make sense in a new light.

Day 124: Visible Footprints

241:19-243:15

The reading today covers more of way marks of progress or steps back away from progress. The first and only way mark to indicate spiritual progress is healing sickness and destroying sin:

The substance of all devotion is the reflection and demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and destroying sin. 

This statement has two parts: what has be to done, and what the result will be. To do: reflect and demonstrate divine Love. Will produce: healing sickness and destroying sin. I love when MBE makes it so clear and concise.

She also gives me a specific step to take:

Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final triumph over the body.

How do people deny the claims of matter when sometimes matter is literally screaming to be heard? That's an honest question. When the claims are less than screaming or completely consuming, I can focus spiritually.

Day 118: Healing

229:15-231:11

Today's reading continues on with yesterday's idea of illusion of material sense.

The first idea that caught my eye was this:

...transgression of a belief of mortal mind ... causes the belief of sickness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, -- the truth that disease is unreal.

The idea of a transgression of a belief is interesting. An example would be don't do A, or B will happen. Don't eat nuts and fruits together, or you will get a stomach ache. I remember that one from childhood. The beliefs I have are like a script that has been running in my head for so long that I don't have to think about them, they just are. But I know they aren't correct. Changing a habit of thought is hard. I have to spot the thought first then replace it with a Truth. I've caught myself repeating these things to my kids. I have a few people that come into to care for the kids on occasion, they are of an older generation, and their scripts are much worse.

The script could be for both an apparently healthy or sick result. Exercise daily. Eat your vegetables.

Now that I'm looking for these beliefs -- there sure are a lot of them.

Then:

But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health, holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the forever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth which casts out error and heals the sick.

I'm looking for action items for my own thought so this sentence popped out as a possibility. But I got stuck on the advanced appearing of Truth. Not sure what to make of that. Isn't Truth just always there? Is does it just seem advanced because it isn't a universally accepted idea? Or is this something like if we are always looking for it, it will be easier to see?

Then another action item:

...but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal the sick through the prayer of the righteous.

I'm so totally glad I'm keeping this blog, writing notes in my book, and have my concordance handy. The prayer of the righteous is also mentioned on page 206 from Day 106. The prayer of the righteous is hope, faith, love and the idea for that day's reading was about loving your neighbor.

So is I may take a jump here, healing is accomplished by looking away from yourself and focusing on others -- helping and loving them.

Day 106: Loving our neighbor

205:7-207:7

When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded. 

Mary Baker Eddy goes on to speak of selfishness as a beam towards the side of error. When I feel the need to retract emotionally, I do act like I'm the only person on the planet and I don't care about my neighbor. I know it's wrong. This quote is just another indication to me that to grow spiritually, I won't be on the journey alone -- even it that is what I wanted. I'm an introvert by nature so including others isn't easy.

She also goes on to mention will-power and human will as subordinate to God's will and that will-power is capable of all evil. I already knew that but the subordinate to God part is tricky.

She also says the prayer of the righteous heals the sick, the prayer is: hope, faith, love. She sort of sneaks that in instead of making that the main point of the paragraph but I'm going to hold on to that one and think about it.

The last thing I marked was "whatever blesses one blesses all." I'm a Star Trek fan and the prime directive is ingrained in me. These two, MBE's whatever blesses one blesses all and the prime directive are in direct conflict with each other. But it gives me some real (t.v. real anyway) ideas on what blessing one is. It's unselfish and damn-the-consequences.

So I think I'll call that C.S. quote the C.S. Prime Directive. What do you think? Might be easier to remember that way.

Day 93: Reflecting

178:28-180:24

Yesterday, I mentioned group thought. At church yesterday, we had a guest soloist. He gets up to join in the first hymn and I'm missing the other soloist, then he starts to sing. I think the entire church collectively, as a group, was overjoyed. Then when he sang his solo, it was as if the finest Tenor on the planet was in the church. The room was filled with group appreciation for this man's voice. I've never heard anyone sing like that except on a professionally produced music cd.

Today's two pages discuss how to approach the patient mentally. I noted this:

Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures of which it is capable; but this can be done only by taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily life.

I need to add more love and less rules to my daily life. I already knew this but it's nice to be reminded.

Then:

Immortal Mind heals what eye hath not seen; but the spiritual capacity to apprehend thought and to heal by the Truth-power, is won only as man is found, not in self-righteousness, but reflecting the divine nature.

 I'll work on reflecting the divine nature of Love today. How about you? What do you want to reflect today?

Day 60: The School of Christian Science

112:3-113:32

In today's two pages, Mary Baker Eddy discusses the various schools of Christian Science and explains there is only one school. This was an issue in her time but not so much ours. Most offshoot groups don't want to use the same words. I can't tell you how many times people have asked "Oh, that's the Tom Cruise religion, right?" No. Totally different.

MBE mentions how CS has rules and laws and the demonstration of those. Any idea that departs for those rules is just human opinion - and not a demonstrable rule. But before she gets bogged down, she says:

The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love.

Then she states the four propositions of CS:

1. God is All-in-All.
2. God is good. Good is Mind. 
3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. 
4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny[:] death, evil, sin, disease. --Disease, sin, evil, death, deny [:] good, omnipotent God, Life.

I added the colons because sometimes I get lost in the meaning of a sentence only due to its grammatical make up. This helps me understand how I think I should read it.


I think the most interesting item in the list, the one I wonder exactly what MBE meant, is Good is Mind. The others I get. Mind is a syn for God but why Mind? Why not one of the other seven synonyms? I think there might be something more here that I'm missing.


I don't think its something superficial like she's discussing schools of thought so she used Mind to tie back to school as opposed to Principle which would tie back to rule or law. I think there is something more there. But what?


I have a challenging day ahead of me on the personal front. Mulling this over will give me something to think about -- more than a distraction -- almost a lifeboat. Good is Mind. That's where I'll be today.

Day 53

97:29-99:29

Today is the last day of this chapter. When I started the chapter, I wasn't looking forward to it and couldn't believe how long it was. Now, I'm thrilled - I totally get this chapter but think it could use a new name: One God.

I marked several things. I'll see if I can explain why.

It is imperious throughout all ages as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which remains inviolate for every man to understand and to practise.

These three (Truth, Life, Love) are everywhere in the book so when they are together, I tend to slow down on the sentence. Here, Mary Baker Eddy is saying I must understand and practice them. I've mentioned before how I tend to focus on these three and delve for a deeper understanding so I think I'm working on that one. But practicing? Well, that could use some work on my part. Don't mean to be cheeky about it, but, yeah, I have some work to do there.

The next thing I underlined was a listy thing:

The way through which immortality and life are learned is [1] not ecclesiastical but Christian, [2] not human but divine, [3] not physical but metaphysical, [4] not material but scientifically spiritual. 

Then:

Christian Science is unerring and Divine, the human sense of things errs because it is human.

I'm still stuck back on Day 50's Divine Logic, so now when I see Divine, it stands out to me.

I liked MBE's summation of the chapter:

The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man.

Deepening my experience -- that is a good summation of this chapter. 

On a side note, I'm going to tag the previous posts so I can find things easier. Not sure how that will affect RSS readers. And today is post 50. Any thoughts or suggestions? If you don't want to comment on the blog but would rather make more pointed comments privately, feel free to email me (dina.readinginoneyear@gmail.com).

Day 50

91:22-93:20

These two pages start by listing the five erroneous postulates:

• The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance, life, and intelligence are something apart from God. 
• The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both mental and material.
• The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the medium of evil, for Mind is God.
• The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is intelligent, and that man has a material body which is part of himself. 
• The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in itself the issues of life and death, -- that matter is not only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also capable of imparting these sensations.

The other thing I marked was:

Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe otherwise, we may be sure that either our logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted revelation.

This has that higher concept feel to it. Misinterpreting revelation is almost vague in that it could be revelations from the bible or it could be revelations we ourselves experience -- the small, still voice.

I did look up one word: Esse.

Day 30

51:28-53:24

Today's pages have several things underlined. I can tell they will consume me for a few days but here are my first thoughts.

The passage discusses the difference between what Jesus did and experienced versus everyone else:

His senses drank in the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evidence of sin, sickness, and death.

Senses versus material evidence. Those seem like the same thing but obviously MBE doesn't mean them that way. 

The "man of sorrows" best understood [1] the nothingness of material life and intelligence and [2] the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love.

I noted the items with numbers so I could read it as a list.

His words and works were unknown to the world because above and contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals believed in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine infinite Love.

This last passage, written over a century ago is still valid. Perhaps even more so today where we have T.V., movies, and books where God is personified humanly. The image sticks and is much harder to replace with an idea such as Love.

I also noticed how two of the three quotes ended in Love. Still working on "divine Principle, Love" since that does seem to be what I need to work on. If my senses drank in the spiritual evidence of the divine Principle of Love, instead of material evidence of sin, sickness, and death, I would be on my way so I have another goal to add to my list.