Reviewing Christian Science, 4

Q. What are spirits and souls?

A. To human belief, they are personalities composed of consciousness and unconsciousness, life and death, truth and error, good and evil. Divine Science reveals how those contrasting terms don’t agree or conform to one another. Truth is indivisible; error is divisible. Truth is limitless; error is limited. Truth is intelligent; error is non-intelligent. Moreover, Truth is real, and error is unreal. This last statement contains the point you will most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the most important to understand.

The terms souls, spirits, or human beings are as unsustainable as the term gods. Soul or Spirit signifies infinite Being and nothing else. There are not finite souls, spirits, or beings. Soul or Spirit means only one Mind and cannot be rendered in the plural. Mythology and human philosophies have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence, soul, and life can be divided and confined, and thereby materialized. Idolatry and ritualism are the outcome of all human-made beliefs. The Science of spirituality comes with tool in hand to separate the chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and its divine Principle, making humankind better physically, morally, and spiritually.

Think about this…On one side of the coin we have individual people. Everyone should have their own rights and life. On the other side of the coin we have humanity, the collection of all individuals. Getting along challenges individuals to act as a whole unit. But of course, we bump into problems because our diversity overwhelms unity.

For other solutions, let’s back up.

If we back up to the sides of the coins, it’s apparent each individual is assigned a different spirit or soul to make up the diversity and thereby make unity a super-challenge.

So, back up farther. Don’t focus on the sides of the coin.

Let’s keep the coin but start thinking with the coin itself. The coin is one Spirit. Now, move to the coins sides. Each individual reflects the one Spirit in their own way, plus as a whole unit.

Diversity isn’t different/separate persons or spirits, but diversity signifies the ever-expansion of one Spirit, the multi-color of one Soul, the ongoing proliferation of beauty.

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Ecumenical Women meet

On a whim, I attended an orientation for Ecumenical Women at the United Nations, last Saturday.What impressed me most?

1. That I was unaware of this infrastructure to helping women and girls.
2. That I am now aware of large scope of Ecumenical Women at the United Nations.
3. Our need to reach the potential of women and children.

During a panel discussion, a woman from Sweden spoke. I couldn’t help but notice the contrast yet similarities between her dialogue and the woman next to her, from Brazil. Sweden is pro-women and equality. Brazil lags behind in women’s rights and equality yet women know the power of connecting and reaching for greater possibilities.

Lopa Banerjee, Director of Civil Society Division of United Nations Women spoke. In the photo below, courtesy of Ecumenical Women of the U.N., the Reverend Dionne Boissiere thanks Banerjee for speaking. I liked when Banerjee showed how policies insisting on equality and better care for women and girls is an investment, not expenditure. (I am the person in the background, wearing a white shirt and holding a blue book. Clapping)

Unraveling mysteries

The mystery of life unravels when I keep admitting it’s a mystery. Otherwise, I’m tempted to assume I have it all figured out.

“Mortal existence is a fantastic mystery. Science and religion make great efforts to explain the mystery, but it is soon learned that for every answer found there are at least two more questions.”—from science & religion to God

The trick is entertaining imaginative answers. Instead of assuming cellphones benefit society by providing access to immediate calls for help or contact with others, entertain the answer that cellphones divide the physical senses of sight, hearing, and tactile feeling.

In the past, we needed to be physically present with others to communicate. The invention of phones separated sight from hearing. We could hear others but not see them.

Cellphones, with the ability to convey images, separate sight and feeling. We can see others but not feel them physically.

It’s interesting. The physical senses are a mystery yet show us their limitations and divisibility.

“Mysteries disappear through discovery and revelation. Scientists, meteorologists, physicians, and computer programmers remove mystery from weather, the body, or electronics. Old-time restraints become extinct when science modifies theories such as when absolutes were replaced with the theory of relativity. Time and space have wrinkled as we fly around the earth in jets. Matter particles are dodged or switched out, no longer seen as solid mass. We can likewise remove mystery from the study of nature and life through spiritual knowledge and divine consciousness.”—from science & religion to God

So, why trust the physical senses when it comes to our spirituality? Why not keep building our relationship with spiritual sense?

“Even if we believe the physical senses are necessary for our existence, hope shows us that we still can change the human concept of life. Our ideals have changed for the better in the past and it can continue. If not, we can start now with a better ideal. We can know Spirit. We can know our self spiritually and practically and act on the higher ideal. We can detect the evidence of the reality of Spirit through our spiritual senses.

“No matter where we are, we can use our spiritual senses to commune with God and be governed by Love.

“To be controlled by divine Mind is not to be controlled by hypnotism, human cultures, theories, crime, drugs, or fantasies. We learn to utilize spiritual sense—the constant conscious capacity to understand the all-acting infinite Spirit.” —from science & religion to God

 

 

Reading from my book

A poets verse

I wake up reluctant, and say:

“Thou to whose power our hope we give,

Free us from human strife.

Fed by They love divine we live,

For Love alone is Life;

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.”

 

I forget to pack a lunch, and say:

“Free us from human strife.

Fed by They love divine we live,

For Love alone is Life;

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.”

 

My car light goes on, and I say:

“Free us from human strife.

Fed by They love divine we live,

For Love alone is Life;

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.”

 

My boss yells at me and I say:

“Free us from human strife.

Fed by They love divine we live,

For Love alone is Life;

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.”

 

Dinner is a can of beans, warmed up, with my husband who loves me and made a car appointment for me, and I say:

“Free us from human strife.

Fed by They love divine we live,

For Love alone is Life;

And life most sweet, as heart to heart

Speaks kindly when we meet and part.”–Mary Baker Eddy

Get an independent view of God

Church is where I met a veteran who served in Afghanistan. I talk about it in my memoir, I Am My Father-Mother’s Daughter. Roland told me about when overseas, he got caught in a melee of explosions, and in his words said, “I remember sh*&#ting my pants and then waking up in the hospital.”

He recovered and retired from the army after twenty years.

Today, Roland and I mostly talked about God.

It’s weird because the word God is loaded too and involves a lot of wars and battles. But it also involves blessings and healings, and because I’m in the mood to celebrate July 4, I’m making a new connection.

July 4 is the agreed upon date we remember the United States Declaration of Independence, made public in 1776.

First, it’s important to recognize that a declaration is a far cry different from winning independence. Eight years of combat fighting was necessary before independence was won, so it stands to reason that a fight, or at least hard work, is required to win an independent thought about God, free of past mistaken thinking.

People’s views of God are vast and famous. But over the centuries many views are proven irrelevant.

Examples:

Because we can experience hell or heaven on earth, then God didn’t predestine us to heaven and hell after death. Might as well aim for heaven.

Because we’re still learning about everything, then we can’t say God created mortal human beings. Because we’re still discovering, we can say God created unseen spiritual beings.

Quoting from science & religion to God, “Let us prepare for the supremacy of Spirit—the government and law of universal harmony, which cannot be lost or remain forever unseen.”

Freedom of the Press

Check out below this full-page ad in the New York Times, from the New York Times. Admirable.

Freedom of the Press means freedom of the readers. We are the image of universal Mind. We reason with divine thoughts that meet our individual circumstances. We are the reflection of eternal intelligence. We have broad views and big pictures. We are the children of Truth and this enables us to read even those things we don’t want to hear.

Don’t get isolated on an island by reading only the words you want to hear, or that are familiar and adored. As the New York Times encourages, read, read, read. And if words don’t speak to you: dance other dances, paint different pictures, run many races, or embrace new friends.

Quoting from science & religion to God:

“Taken literally the words, “Clean your room,” produces decent results. But when dealing with less concrete concepts, open to wide interpretations, such as, “Be nice,” the results can vary. Spirituality comes to our rescue.

“Divine interpretation gives us the deeper meaning our hearts yearn for. Spiritual interpretation maintains our life purpose and makes our experiences, words, expressions—even myths—useful. It points the way to non-intrusive healing.”

I listened to Eva Schloss and Wonder Woman

The date varies each year, but Holocaust Remembrance Day will be May 2, 2019. This year it was April 12.

Different countries designated other days also to honor the victims, rescuers, and survivors of the Holocaust, defined as destruction or slaughter on a mass scale by Nazism.

A few days ago, I visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. On the third floor is the New Dimensions in Testimony℠ installation, a place where you can ask survivors questions and their full-size image answers.

After touring the exhibits, I watched the documentary by Davino Pardo, “116 Cameras.” With the audience, we also listened to a discussion with Pardo, Eva Schloss, and Michael ?, I didn’t catch his last name, but he was a brilliant moderator.

Eva Schloss is a survivor and an amazing woman. After World War II, her mother married the father of Anne Frank who wrote the book “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

I can’t begin to tell you her story, but when she was asked how she maintained her “resiliency” throughout her trials, Schloss answered, “I love nature, I love life, and it is love that keeps me going…I don’t want to see another war.”

I would say, Schloss learns and experiences spirituality. From 21^st Century Science and Health, “Earth has little light or joy before Life is spiritually learned.”

It’s difficult to describe spiritual learning. We all do it differently. But we can.

The next day, after humbly listening to Schloss, I watched Lynda Carter perform her show, “Red, Rock n Blues,” at the Lincoln Center. She and her group were entertaining. But she too shone light on the power of love, although next to Schloss, Carter is a privileged woman of a different generation.

While Schloss wears a tattoo on her arm, stamped as a Jew in the concentration camp, and suffered terribly, Carter portrayed Wonder Woman in a 1975-1979 television series.

They both raised children and talk of the power of love and talent and truth.

Davino Pardo on left, Eva Schloss, and Micheal at Museum of Jewish Heritage 2018

 

Book recommendation

I just finished a book that portrays fairness and intelligence. It also allowed me to get to know Islam a bit better because the author grew up in a Muslim home. I want to rid myself of bias or prejudice against other religions and this book helps.

The book title is, The Blindfold Horse: Memories of a Persian Childhood, and it’s written by Shusha Guppy.

The first chapter is about a blindfolded horse and to be honest, it confused me some because I don’t really see how it tied into the rest of the book. But the chapters are short, so I was able to get to the second chapter quickly and read about Guppy’s life and memories, which were written very well.

I could identify with her life in that God, love, trust, friendship, and courage are important.

Guppy talks about the dangers of religious fundamentalism and how it sadly affected the Persian countries in 1979, when the Shaw was overthrown, and religious authorities took control.

The book reminds me of the importance of keeping state and religion separate and to put God before religious organization. It reminds me to follow divine rules before I follow church rules.

I recommend The Blindfold Horse.

Using rather than being used while learning to walk

Our grandson is learning to walk. He lifts himself off his hands and knees by climbing the gate of their dog’s crate. The gate-door however swings freely and our grandson loses his balance and falls.

Unperturbed, he climbs back up and with joyous determination uses the gate to strengthen his balance. In other words, he no longer lets the swinging gate use or control him.

From 21^st Century Science and Health:

“We must begin however with more simple demonstrations of control and the sooner we begin the better. The final demonstration takes time for its accomplishment. When walking, we are guided by the eye. We look before our feet and if we are wise, we look beyond a single step in the line of spiritual advancement.”

“This new-born understanding that neither food nor the stomach, without the consent of human mind, can make us suffer, brings with it another lesson, that self-indulgence, gluttony, or bulimia, are sensual illusions and can’t give satisfaction. These phantasms disappear as we better understand our spiritual existence and walk the line of a balanced life.”

“Enoch’s perception was not confined to the evidence before his physical senses. Therefore, he “walked with God”[1]—he ascended—he was guided into the demonstration of life eternal.”

 

[1] Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5