Divine Mind vs human mind

God, the all-knowing divine Mind does not know the short-lived human mind. To know the human mind is not to know divine Mind. To know divine Mind is to recognize that the human mind is unknowable because it constantly vacillates between spirituality and materiality, good and bad, adoration and fear, joy and grief, mistakes and fixes, birth and death.

Human mind may think it knows what health is, until it’s lost. It may think it’s experiencing out-of-body spirituality until it quits absorbing hallucinogenic drugs. Human mind may think it’s creating a life-changing adventure until it removes the Oculus headset. The human mind is easily fooled.

Without the Principle of the Science of Life to interpret existence, views of reality are taken on blind faith and trigger conflicting opinions and behaviors that reduce the wholeness of life to a menagerie of personal beliefs, fears, pleasures, pains, haves and have nots.

With the Principle of the Science of Life to interpret existence, views of reality are taken on a trust in the infinite divine Mind, complete with inspired thoughts, creativity, and actions that manifest restoration, restructuring, the greater dimension of wellbeing. The infinite is achieved only as we turn from the finite. Light is seen only as we stop looking at the darkness. Unlimited wellbeing is experienced only as we stop applying limited human knowledge. Health is more reliably known when sought for and found in its Principle, divine Mind. Health is a state of Mind, Truth, Love.

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Giving to Life

Give to the natural sciences that to which it belongs, the hierarchical mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, the change, mutation, evolution, and vulnerability to extinction.

Give to the Science of Life that to which it belongs, Principle, Soul, Life eternal, with no beginning or end, God, intelligence, force, spirituality, health, delight. The living atmosphere. Us.

“Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”[1]

God, the all-knowing divine Mind does not know the short-lived human mind. To know the human mind is not to know divine Mind. To know divine Mind is to recognize that the human mind is unknowable because it constantly vacillates between good and bad, adoration and fear, joy and grief, mistakes and fixes, birth and death.

Human mind may think it knows what health is, until it’s lost. It may think it’s experiencing out-of-body spirituality until it quits absorbing hallucinogenic drugs or time passes. Human mind may think it’s creating a life-changing adventure until it removes the Oculus headset. The human mind is easily fooled.

Without the Principle of the Science of Life to interpret existence, views are taken on blind trust and trigger conflicting opinions and behaviors that reduce the wholeness of life to a menagerie of personal beliefs, fears, pleasures, pains, haves and have nots. With the Principle of the Science of Life to interpret existence, views are taken on a trust in the infinite divine Mind, complete with inspired thoughts and actions that manifest restoration, renewal, and restructuring.

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[1] Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25

The Science of Truth, and flexibility

History of women fades quicker

The attention given to women during March annoys me. It only takes half a minute to look back and see the future. A month of admiration given to women, then comes April Fool’s Day. Just joking, women are on the front line in the fight for equality and respect and our casualties outweigh the survivors.

A study on the 2017 state of women in corporate America reported that women, especially of color, remain underrepresented, hit low glass ceilings, get less support on the job, and then, 54% of them go home to do most or all the housework.

What are we up against? The human system. It’s rigged for inequalities by its very nature of diversity, yet we keep giving it power. And that power is abused.

Through research, social scientists find that when participants are assigned positions of power, they often willingly take candy from children or give near-lethal shocks to strangers for no reason other than being told to do so.

Professor of Psychology at University of California, Dacher Keltner reported last fall in Harvard Business Review, “These findings from laboratory studies tell us that abuses of power are predictable and recurring.”

I talk about recurring abuses of power in my memoir, I Am My Father-Mother’s Daughter. I also talk about stumbling upon better strategies to expand equality and respect.

First, I learned how to isolate the enemies.

The enemies aren’t men, they aren’t submissive women, and they aren’t nature or nurture. Whether believed or not, the enemies are inequality and disrespect.

It’s that simple and yet that complex. And to keep it simple, uncomplicates a better plan of action. An example from my memoir.

I grew up learning about Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) and about Christian Science as taught through her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Christian Science is a divine system sourced to help improve the human system.

Eddy developed Christian Science into a religion by founding a church in Boston. Her accomplishments struck powerful chords early 20^th century. Individuals were transformed, the church flourished, and then branched out worldwide, as successes far outweighed failures.

Mary Baker Eddy was a household name. Respected more than not.

By the 1980s, however, when I was in my twenties, her storyline backfired.

The backfire can be traced to contemporary controversies about the practices of healthcare and prayer, especially regarding children. Arguably, these sharp challenges are necessary to expose spiritual failures on the part of Eddy’s self-professed followers, but the result is Eddy’s original reputation and her accomplishments plummeting to obscurity.

Another female casualty. It’s tiresome, even if she’s used as a tourist attraction.

But, I uncovered and confronted my own guilt of being pretty proud of myself for admiring and following a woman. Basically, my arrogance pushed the limits of respect into a reverence for Eddy’s personality and her words. I admired the wrong thing. It was disrespect disguised as respect.

I pulled back to figure out a better plan of action: Use the power of admiration correctly.

The power of admiring women can’t go unchecked. What are we admired for? Sex appeal? Stop it now.

Intelligence and skill? Okay, but don’t let your guard down, because the power to approve of feminine intelligence and skill is limited and quickly slips into disapproval with any prodding from envy.

Are women admired for patience and empathy? Fine, but arm yourself, everyone, women and men. Arm yourself with better teachings and better learning, untainted by annoyance.

I just learned something.

Yes, the fight to give power to equality and respect is teachable and learnable. It means not trying so hard to give power to gender or positions in life. It means fighting correctly during Women’s History Month, instead of complaining about what I don’t like.

Bio: Cheryl Petersen is a freelance writer and student of Christian Science living in upstate New York. Her books are: 21^st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A revision of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health, and, from science & religion to God.

 

 

 

 

 

Wind blows in peace

Walking in the woods is a favorite past-time for me. I listen to the trees and birds. I pick up litter.

The other day it was windy. Urgh. The wind kept blowing off my hat. It felt as though my mind was being blown into despair, until I remembered God has power over my human mind.

I re-thought wind.

Rather than coming from the standpoint that wind is annoying, I took a metaphysical approach to looking at wind.

It symbolizes stirring stagnate thought.

It renews the atmosphere.

It shows movement, progress.

I cinched on my hat and my walk went much better.

In my new book, from science & religion to God, we can read, “Spiritual consciousness requires a mental effort. We start with thought and work patiently to conquer all that is unlike God. We have to begin at the highest standpoint possible. Start with mind instead of brain. Start with humanity instead of egotism. Start with spiritual history rather than mortal history. Start with God instead of many creators.

“Giving our attention to spiritual interpretations should move us to new standpoints.

“…Understanding comes through spiritual logic and revelation. Following the signposts of divine law, we comprehend the Truth that is changing the world for the better. In this path we find progress attended by life and peace.”

 

The unbroken connection between us

Science and religion are too large to describe. They are veritable conglomerates, diverse trades, mottled and immensely interesting businesses that can go bad.

But science and religion affect contemporary faith and how it is shaping, or reshaping, our institutions. Even the people who say they have no faith, have faith in something, maybe their dog coming home.

Today, beliefs and convictions change daily. New thoughts are hurled at us to ricochet in our spaces and minds. But, we may remember that science and religion associate with a tiny segment in the history of humankind. Centuries elapsed before human beings developed a consciousness of either. Human beings were too busy surviving. It took time for beliefs and knowledge to evolve and organize, sometimes self-destructing in the process.

In this evolution, factions reproduced, even as they matured and decayed. And through it all, there are peaks, the empowering heartfelt religious prayers, transformative sciences, putrid abuses, in short everything that is pleasant and irritating that attracts and repels, seduces and disgusts us humans. But, more important there are the people. How they fit into science and religion. How they complement one another.

Over the last half century, I’ve met people who observe Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, secularism, humanism, and naturalism. I see more complements than clashes. Science nor religion can break the unity of the spirit.

Neither science nor religion is truth. They aren’t even bodies of facts. They are methods to decide whether or not what we chose to believe has a foundation in physical or spiritual laws. I barely understand physical and spiritual laws, occasionally thinking they blend, but I have found common ground among science and religion in that they both can be used to pursue the law of healing and answer questions as to why the heck we are here and what should we do about it.

But let’s remember where we are starting from: Unbreakable unity.

 

 

Another view other than the Church’s Board of Directors

As read in The Christian Science Journal, July 2014, volume 132, issue 07, with my remarks given in bold font:

Question. Should Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures be changed to keep up with the times?

Answer. It’s characteristic of human experience to keep on changing. But, interestingly, Mary Baker Eddy realized the textbook of Christian Science would never be swallowed up by change. She once wrote, “If the world were in ashes, the contents of ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures’ would remain immortal’ (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p 178.)

The “contents” of Science and Health are ideas, spiritual ideas. If the world were in ashes, the ideas would still remain because they are immortal.

I do not assume to know what Mary Baker Eddy “realized,” however I will not impose upon Mary Baker Eddy the notion that she believed human words or a physical book were immortal. This imposition would restrict Christian Science to a book and a lost language, until the advancement of divine Science reverts back to the oral tradition.

A better crafted question is: Should Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures be revised? And the answer is, yes, because truth stays ahead of mortal mind’s perversions. Eddy wrote in Science and Health, “A germ of infinite Truth, though least in the realm of heaven, is the higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and hated until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which when sown produces immortal fruit, perfects humanity only when it is understood—consequently, the many readings given the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”

The presumption that God won’t be rejected is complacent to the very evil that is rejecting God. A sacrifice of beloved material words is requisite to express the higher hope on earth.

Was Mrs. Eddy unaware of the effect time would appear to have on all books and human opinions, or was she so profoundly aware of how this book had come into being that she had not the slightest doubt of its eternal nature? She observed, “No human pen nor tongue taught me the Science contained in this book, Science and Health; and neither tongue nor pen can overthrow it.” (Science and Health p. 110).

This paragraph is a guesstimate made by the Board of Directors as to what Mrs. Eddy believed one hundred years ago about time. Their guesstimate has nothing to do with Science.

She described herself as feeling like a little child when first stepping into the new universe of Spirit. What had been sought through centuries of Christian prayer she was discovering to be the existing actuality of infinite divine good. Is it any wonder Mrs. Eddy saw the Science behind Jesus’ healing as the fulfillment of his prophecy of the coming of the Comforter to humanity (see John 14:16)?

This unchanging Allness of God, Spirit, she learned, brings concrete changes for the better in human experience. Thousands of healings through Christian Science over more than a century and a half provide abundant evidence. The chapter “Fruitage” in Science and Health includes this example of healing among many others:

“For twenty years I was a constant sufferer, my spine having been injured when I was very young. As a little child I suffered so much that I would look up to the starts and beg God, who I thought might be up there somewhere, to take me away from the earth,—I was so tired. A great wall of pain seemed to separate me from the pleasures enjoyed by others…This was my condition when I commenced reading Science and Health.  I was ready for its message, and in about ten days there came a wonderful insight into the truth which heals the sick and binds up the brokenhearted. All pain left me, I had a glimpse of the new heavens and the new earth, and was beginning to be fed by Love divine” (p. 690).

A single, deeply moving account of such a healing, and the glimpse of the wholly new and different reality behind it, should be enough to give anyone pause in trying to “improve” the textbook of Christian Science. Whatever differences in punctuation, language, biblical scholarship, or translations, or even social norms and attitudes, may have developed since the final edition of Science and Health, the book stands as Mrs. Eddy saw it to be, the final revelation of the Science of Christ.

Maybe, a testimony of spiritual healing should give pause. But arguing with a century-old testimony, out of millions of testimonies, is self-jeopardizing. Moreover, the testimonies of people who were harmed by reading Science and Health should also give pause.

As for the “final” edition of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health, is only final because she died. Mrs. Eddy never ceased revising her book while she was alive. 

Its uniqueness and completeness is God-given. The textbook of Christian Science can’t be made simpler, and doesn’t need to be made more “accessible,” as the author herself pointed out.

The above words are words put in Mary Baker Eddy’s mouth. Words she did not write, that is why there is no reference for the quoted word “accessible.”

Moreover, the Board of Directors statement is based on the thinking that leads to the distortion that Christian Science and Science and Health are synonymous.

There would be no more sense in opening the door to mortal minds’ unremitting desire to conform truth to its own state of thought than there would to permit an art or music student to make a Michelangelo sculpture “better’ or to “fix” Bach’s or Beethoven’s music.

Is the Board of Directors assuming that readers of Eddy’s Science and Health never try to conform truth to their own states of thought? This assumption is negligent.

Or, is the Board of Directors assuming that Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures would be changed while retaining Eddy as the author? That assumption is immoral and illegal. The Board’s statement makes no sense.

But, it makes complete sense for students to discover Christian Science, as did Eddy, and express or read about Science uniquely and individually, with inspiration. It makes sense to learn from Michelangelo, Bach, Beethoven, or Eddy and go on to create our own masterpieces.

There can be no changes to an original spiritual discovery anymore than to discovering the basic facts of a new galaxy’s existence. And none are needed to increase the significance and attraction of Science and Health. Deepening spiritualization and Christianization awaken its readers every day to the incredible, lasting newness of this little book the angel had in hand (see Science and Health, pp. 558-559).

This statement by the Board of Directors adds to the detrimental imposition placed on Mary Baker Eddy by her opponents. Nowhere, does Eddy say Science and Health is the little book held by the angel as spoken of in the book of Revelation.

Eddy uses Revelation 10: 1 as a metaphor. The “little book” is likened to divine Science, not Science and Health. Divine Science or Christian Science is NOT Science and Health.

Science and Health isn’t a book needing help in keeping up. It’s “out there,” already far ahead of time and human opinions. It is best made known now through Christian Science healing and the revolutionary message of hope and fulfilling it offers humanity.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

I warn against this attempt to conform human mind to matter, whether in the form of a book or words or actions.

I will not impose upon Eddy the assumption that she was a semi-god, fanatic, theocrat, or autocrat. She simply wrote a good book, that in order not to be buried in human language, needs honestly to be revised.

My revision of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was accomplished, not because Eddy’s book needed help, but because the ideas found in Eddy’s book were helpful. A fifth edition of my book, 21^st Century Science and Health is coming soon .

Presentation in Chicago

Who is Your Leader?

Wow, if you want to read a mind-boggling book, pick up Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick. The tome speaks of extraterrestrial courage and stamina in the midst of dark ages thinking. Barbara Demick offers a stark view of North Korea,  a country and society largely unknown to the rest of the world.

The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea has been a Communist regime since 1945, and is a sheer clear example of totalitarianism in a modern world. The well-researched story line follows a hand full of people who escaped North Korea.

The book shows the power of propaganda, and the subtly of human reasoning assuming it is divine. It is a case of falsehood claiming to be truth. Ironically, I can see traces of this oppressive framework within countries that vend freedom of expression.

Freedom of expression isn’t generally associated with the freedom to express restriction, starvation, conformity, or pain. Freedom of expression means we want freely to express life, creativity, joy, and wellbeing.

In North Korea, past leaders, Kim II-sun and Kim Jong-il, and present day leader, Kim Jong-un, hold to ideals that cause isolation, disconnect, and fear. Is this any different from a disease invading our body? Do we accept the command of a disease, in the same way the people of North Korea accept the demands of their leader?

North Koreans are told they have it better than everyone else in the world. The way of communism is superior. They are superior.

I ponder, have I heard this “superior” crack before, from within the fields of science or religion?

Escaping North Korea was not an easy task. Moreover, the escapees had to learn to adapt to a fast-paced society full of modern inventions and novel ideas. Many loved it and would never return to their homeland. Others felt the new world was so dramatically different, that they held a preference to return to North Korea.

The human psyche is indeed an enigma, an alien of sorts. Therefore, it is no wonder I feel a draw to study spirituality.

Being Faithful to Yourself

If we didn’t think and talk about worthless topics, we would be prone to more epiphanies. The epiphanies naturally expand into experiences and we feel a secret victory.

In the encounter of life, good and goodness become more hearty and persistent as it reduces the activity of evil. The threats of evil rivet our attention on actions that secure the good and we become “faithful over a few things.” We are being prepared to be “put in charge of many things.” (Matt. 25:23)

Are you a child learning not to worry your parents or care takers? Are you a husband or wife learning not to demand unrealistic expectations? Are you a partner learning not to take another for granted? Are you an employee or employer learning to serve humankind with honesty? Remember, for all the days you forget to take a stand for good, you alone will make amends.

Mistakes are made however admit the wisdom gained instead of justifying the mistake and correction will be less harmful. Another mistake will not remedy the first mistake.

Progress requires work, mental and physical work, and the time to work is now. Only with straightforward effort, undistracted by self-righteousness or self-pity, will you win.

Do not blame others if your spiritual progress is vague. To follow faithfully is to practice what the teacher teaches and not expect the teacher to do your work for you.

Every great woman and man can be found on the trajectory of patience and perseverance. Faithfulness is entered by first purifying your thought and then putting thought into words and words into deeds. These steps will be slippery or mucky however your sincerity and humility will find a reward and strength in exalted purpose.

Human hopes deceive. Human philosophy, ethics, and scholastic theology mislead. Physics and quantum energy fields are insufficient to enlighten. Having one God and an undivided affection for spiritual reality will draw you to that which is worthy and worthwhile.

Being faithful to God is being faithful to your spiritual light. Spending too much time on the cares of the world or on manipulating the pains and pleasures of the flesh will diminish your wealth of spirituality.

Truth will cost you your fears, beliefs, false devotions, intriguing data, and lame formalities. Be willing to pay the price of Truth so you can be move forward with God and feel the exclamation, Job well done.