DWELL

When reading Science and Health and the bible, we must always be elevating language and thought to its highest spiritual meanings. The word ‘dwell’ on a human plane of thought means to inhabit or abide in or to have a fixed residence. A more spiritual definition is “To keep one’s attention fixed” or in Mrs. Eddy's words "Stand porter at the door of thought (S&H 392:24)." Psalms 23:6 says “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” The effect, goodness and mercy following you, is followed by the cause, dwelling in the house of the Lord. We must consciously affirm the Allness of God continuously. At times, this will be a gentle presence, as if you were a child holding your Mother’s hand. Sometimes, it will be striving to get above an aggressive mental suggestion.

Mrs. Eddy writes “Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as immortality brought to light. (S&H 335:22)” This false sense of Soul is the aggressive mental claim that Life is dependent on body and that body holds the key to our survival and happiness. How do we conquer this aggressive mental suggestion that body is the dwelling place for Soul? By knowing the Truth that 'objects' are never in Mind. Only the thought or idea, which the object represents, is in consciousness. The body (effect) represents the thoughts that govern it. “Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. (S&H 273:18)” Take thought out of the body, affirm that you dwell in the consciousness of Soul and are governed by Soul, Mind.

A MAN UNDER AUTHORITY

The story of the centurion's servant that Jesus healed in the gospel of Matthew chapter 8 demonstrates the generic nature of God's attributes, including authority. "For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." The centurion realized the impersonal nature of authority manifested as Jesus. He realized that the Christ was the impersonal office that Jesus represented, just as he was of a high rank in the army, the authority he wielded came with the office and was transferable to the next office holder. ".... but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." The authority of Soul is expressed in one generic man. When we realize that the Synonyms and the attributes are generic, we can see them expressed here and everywhere.

In Science & Health, Mary Baker Eddy writes "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." So Christian Scientists, take a great step daily towards the joys of Spirit and away from the captivity of mortal thinking. Deny the bondage of mortality and affirm freedom of man as God's reflection.

Deny: God does not operate apart from His reflection, man. God is never separated from man, and man is never separated from God.
Affirm: I am joyously expressing the freedom of Soul, Life. I am the authority of Soul's presence and power.

BECOME ONE WITH THE STRUCTURE OF REALITY

Section IV, Soul and Body, May 2007

In chapter 1 of the book of Daniel we read the story of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah who purposed not to defile themselves by eating the king's meat or drinking his wine. Daniel and the others were willing to lay their earthly all aside for righteousness, spirituality. Daniel was spiritually aware of the error of relying on food, even the best food the king could provide, as a means to spirituality. Today, the king's food would be equivalent to buying organic or free range or fat free or whatever the most wholesome food would be thinking that this will maintain, create and nourish mortal bodies.

The king may have been thinking that by feeding these young prophets high quality food, they would live longer and by this reason have more opportunity to become spiritual. Mrs Eddy writes in Science and Health page 307:25 "The divine Mind is the Soul of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man was not created from a material basis, nor bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher law of Mind." Man's perfection is his being. It is not acquired over time or by study.

It is helpful to realize that our countenance or appearance is the outward manifestation of thought. The body is an expression of mind and is as mental as the mind expressing it. On a higher plane we could also say that the idea (one infinite body) is an expression of divine Mind, Soul "...man will be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than he was in the prior states which human belief created and sanctioned. (S&H pg124:7)" This changed mortal thought is the fading out of mortal thinking not the educating of it. We must claim divine Mind as the only mind. This one Mind is reflected to human sense as an infinitude of minds. Each individual mind is an expression and continuation of the one inseparable Mind and body.

CONSCIOUS IDENTITY

Section III, Soul & Body, May 2007

We read in the book of Psalms Chapter 27:4,8 "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." The psalmist's desire is to dwell in the conscious identity of the Lord. The common belief that identity is made up of a bodily formation that is distinct from others, is dwelling in physical identity, which is a mortal illusion. "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face;" Obeying the command of God to seek His face, not our own, identity is found in the sameness, oneness, and likeness to God. This is identifying ourselves intelligently and consciously with Soul, beauty, creativity, innocence, poise, spontaneity, warmth -- "my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."

Mrs. Eddy tells us that "The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious freedom of spiritual harmony. (Science & Health p 247:31)" The opposite of Soul, conscious identity, is physical identity. Physical identity fluctuates and changes. Material sense has no absolute standards for beauty. Its five senses cannot give us information about God's man -- our true conscious identity.

Conscious identity, found in Soul, is completeness, consistency, and harmoniousness. You are the ISness of Soul. Beauty "...dwells forever in the eternal Mind,... (S&H 247)" Beauty is never in the object that is being seen as beautiful. Using spiritual sense we can see that beauty is in what the object signifies. "Too soon we cannot turn from disease in the body to find disease in mortal mind, and its cure, in working for God. (Mis 343)" Become conscious of the fact that there is only one Mind, because there is one God (and body is not god).

Affirm: I AM the perfect likeness of Mind. I can be conscious of and manifest only the pure and perfect spiritual ideas of health, harmony, happiness, and peace.

BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY

Do you consult the body? Do you obey its commands? Before going outside, do you ask the body: Is it cold? Will I become sick if I don't put a coat on? Will I get a headache if I don't eat or if I eat the wrong food? These are patterns of mortal thinking. The body is in reality thoughtless and mortals are asking this thoughtless body to rule over them and make decisions for them.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science & Health "When you say, 'Man's body is material,' I say with Paul: Be 'willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (pg 225:28-30)" When we begin by excluding all thoughts about the body from consciousness, "Give up your material beliefs of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its own likeness. (pg 225:30-1)" the body becomes unconscious and the I that is thinking becomes conscious with God, Soul.

Affirmation: I am a spiritual idea emanating from Mind.

Further references from Science and Health
"I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind. (pg. 226:22)"

"Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is a more difficult task. The despotic tendencies, inherent in mortal mind and always germinating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out through the action of the divine Mind. (pg. 225:23)"

KNOW WHERE YOU ARE

In I Kings 8:27 we find this question "will God indeed dwell on the earth?" Christian Science teaches us that Soul does not dwell in sense, Mind in brain, or Life in matter. The verse continues with this answer "behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee;" This heaven referred to as the heaven of heavens is rebuking the material universe as a habitation for infinite Mind, God. All that the eye can see and the brain can imagine, as material existence cannot encapsulate infinity.

Compare that to the heaven that Jesus referred to in Luke 17:21 "The kingdom of God is within you." As thinking that limits us to a dependency on a material body or brain as the manifestation of Life and Mind melts away, we glimpse the reality that man is wholly spiritual, and abides in Soul instead of in matter.