15. All experience develops personal identity--the consciousness of the powers of Being in the self. This is the bringing forth of free will, which is inherent in all. In the course of his demonstrations of Being, man arrives at the place where he feels his own ability, and he knows that he can exercise it without restraint. "Satan" is the personal mind that tempts man to try experience without knowledge. In divine illumination man does not consciously enter into that dual condition typified by "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Good is all; evil is that which might be if man forsook his guiding light. In the serene mind of God there is no duality, no good and bad, no understanding-and-ignorance. The brilliancy of all-knowing Mind dissolves all shadows, all negations.
16. It is man's privilege to abide in the light, to know how to work out the problem of existence as accurately as the mathematician who follows, without deviation, the rules of his science. The Lord admonishes the unfolding Adam not to "eat"--not to incorporate into his consciousness the knowledge of duality, good and evil. But, like the child who refuses to take the advice of one who knows, man falls into indulgence of the sense of pleasure and excess. The reaction of sense indulgence is pain. Through these experiences, man comes into a consciousness of an opposite to the good. The dual mentality naturally sets up positive and negative forces in his mind, and these opposing forces are reflected into his body. The commotion is so great that the soul is forced out of its temple--man is put out of the garden, and in time forgets his former Edenic state.
17. Some metaphysicians argue that eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge was a necessary step in man's evolution; that by experience we learn all truth, and that without experience we should always remain infants. Herein is the difference between the practical Christian and other men: the one seeks the guiding light of Spirit in all his ways, while the other ignores that light and works out his character as did Adam, in the sweat of his face. Hard experiences come into our lives because we do not know the law of harmonious thinking. If we think that evil exists as a power in the world, that it is working in our lives and in the lives of those about us, we make it an active force, and it appears to be all that we imagine it. The poet truly discerned that "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
18. Some metaphysicians claim that it is not wise to make denials; that affirmation includes all the mental movement necessary to man's perfect development. This position would be tenable if we had built up our consciousness according to divine law. The student who has carried his mathematical problem forward without making an error does not find it necessary to erase. But if he sees where he has made a wrong computation, what then? Nothing but an erasure, followed by a right computation, will bring the correct answer. We have all fallen short of divine ideals; we must cross out our errors and insert Truth, until our character is brought up to the Jesus Christ standard.
19. Repentance is a form of denial. The forgiveness of sin is an erasure of mortal thought from consciousness. The joy that comes to the converted Christian results from the inflow of divine love, which occurs after the mind has been cleansed by denial of sin. This is a real experience, which may be repeated again and again by one who understands the law of Holy Spirit baptism, until the whole man is sanctified and freed from sin. Christians think of the joyous exaltation that marked their conversion as a special sign from the Lord in recognition of their change of heart. They look back upon it as an experience that comes but once in a lifetime. But metaphysicians who have studied the law of mind, who have practiced denials and affirmations as a science, find that they can throw themselves into this ecstatic state at will.
20. The personal self is the ego around which revolve all thoughts that bind us to error. We cannot cross all out at once, but little by little we cast out the specific thoughts that have accumulated and built up the false state of consciousness termed Judas. In the life of Jesus, Judas represents the false ego that error thought has generated. This "son of perdition" is so interwoven into the consciousness that to kill him at one fell swoop would destroy the mental entity, so he must be counted as one of the twelve, even while we know that he "hath a devil."
21. In the symbology of Jesus' life, Judas is represented as the treasurer; he "had the bag." This means that this ego has possession of the sex, or life, center in the organism and is using it for its own selfish ends. Judas was a "thief." The selfish use of the life and vitality of the organism for the gratification of sense pleasure robs the higher nature, and the spiritual man is not built up. This is the betrayal of Christ, and it is constantly taking place in those who live to fleshly, selfish ends.
22. A time comes, however, when Judas must be eliminated from consciousness. The agony of mind and the final crucifixion of Jesus represent the crossing out wholly of the false ego, Judas.
"I die daily," said Paul. The "I" that dies daily is personal consciousness, formed of fear, ignorance, disease, the lust for material possessions, pride, anger, and the legion of demons that cluster about the personal ego. The only Savior of this one is Christ, the spiritual ego, the superconsciousness. We cannot, in our own strength, solve the great, self-purifying problem, but by giving ourselves wholly to Christ and constantly denying the demands of the personal self, we grow into the divine image. This is the process by which we "awake, with beholding thy form."
Cleansing And Purifying Statements
(To be used in connection with Lesson Five)
1. God is good, and God is all, therefore I refuse to believe in the reality of evil in any of its forms.
2. God is life, and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe in the reality of loss of life, or death.
3. God is power and strength, and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe in inefficiency and weakness.
4. I am in authority. I say to this thought, "Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh." (Read Mt. 8:5-13.)
5. God is wisdom, and God is all! therefore I refuse to believe in ignorance.
6. God is spiritual substance, and God is all; therefore there is no reality in the limitations of matter.
7. God is inexhaustible resource, and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe in the reality of lack or poverty.
8. God is love, and God is all; therefore I refuse to believe in hate or revenge.
9. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city."
Lesson Six
The Word
1. In pure metaphysics there is but one word, the Word of God. This is the original creative Word, or thought, of Being. It is the "God said" of Genesis. It is referred to in the 1st chapter of John as the Logos. It cannot be adequately translated into English. In the original it includes wisdom, judgment, power, and, in fact, all the inherent potentialities of Being. This divine Logos was and always is in God; in fact, it is God as creative power. The Divine Mind creates under law; that is, mental law. Man may get a comprehension of the creative process of Being by analyzing the action of his own mind. First is mind, then the idea in mind of what the act shall be, then the act itself. In Divine Mind the idea is referred to as the Word.
2. According to Genesis and all other mystical writings bearing upon creation, Divine Mind expresses its Word, and through the activity of that Word the universe is brought forth. Man is the consummation of the Word, and his spirit has within it the concentration of all that is contained within the Word. Jesus is called the Word of God. "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us