Abundance
July 31, 2003
If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of the spiritual universe, including man, then everything entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity.
Abundance, often a euphemism for money, somehow promises more. Several members pointed out we're not really looking for money but health, satisfaction, joy, well-being and so on. Money is sometimes associated with these blissful states, but can't produce them per se. It's a symbol perhaps divinely rooted (coins were originally minted in temples) and a store of value. As a medium of exchange it's a kind of barometer where the relative values of goods and services are revealed.
A member said Socrates eschewed the countryside for the market place where he could gather ideas by observing the hurly-burly of human interactions around money.
Our member also told of a rich uncle who slowly expired in a hospital he'd helped establish. His great wealth was useless to prevent his demise.
The omnipresence of God is true abundance and is where we all in reality exist. This idea became the focus of our inquiry into the topic. (We have looked at abundance once before, on December 9, 1999. Here's a link for those wishing to see how we saw it then: [#topic=19991209#]). Rather than seeing ourselves as partaking of abundance, we can see it as the reality of our divine and only nature. "Allness is the measure of abundance in Science,"is how one member put it.
How can we tell when we're seeing abundance as material and thus subject to problems and deterioration? "If we think we can lose it,"said one member. "And if we think we'll get to heaven — in other words happiness — through people, places and things dualistically conceived,"added another.
We went on to some recent demonstrations of abundance.
1) One member found herself in a business drought and turned to God with this prayer: "I need money to carry on a relationship with You."This came back: "All that I have is thine."(It's from Luke 15: 31). The phone started ringing immediately with old and new clientele.
2) Another member had only one client on a recent day, but stayed at his place of business (he called it "holy ground") practicing his Science. The next day people were practically trampling each other to get into his chair. He had six clients back to back. Afterwards two friends (non-Christian Scientists by the way) stopped by to continue a discussion they've been having about the nature of God. As they started in, several others gathered around to listen. The group approached ecstasy as the discussion unfolded over four hours.
3) Another member told us of people he has recently been attracted to. They don't fit his usual parameters of muscularity and unfriendly, rejective attitudes but have "reasonable bodies"and warm, friendly personalities. What on earth is happening? A friend said to him, "Well, you have to expect this kind of thing as you get more in touch with your true selfhood. You're attracting people like yourself."Our member added, "Then I've upgraded from reptilian to warm blooded."
4) Another member testified about his recovery from near bankruptcy. Much hard work in Science has brought him to financial equilibrium. His needs are being met, but he wonders why he can't seem to get beyond this level to a place affording luxuries. He speculated that it may be because he just can't work consistently to know he has it all.
This testimony got us into a discussion of needs vs. wants. There's a thought running through the Christian Science movement and the 12-Step programs that we should have our needs met but not our wants. Perhaps if we're in a rough and untutored state, our wants will be wild and chaotic, but even here they must not be quashed but lifted and refined. They are prayer!
A member clued us into child development. Mother energies (mediated by either sex, of course) satisfy needs — like food and shelter. When the father energies (again mediated by either sex) arrive on the scene, we're into the realm of desires: the outer world, business, arts, religion. "Once we're fed and clothed, we need poetry and friendship and God,"is how he summed up.
We talked of Jesus' financial demonstration. He seemed to have all he needed of food and clothing but it was his huge spiritual affluence that still astounds the world. We had to conclude that God-centered abundance is surely what students of Christian Science seek, even if we appear momentarily blinded by dualistic concepts.
Regarding sharing and gifts, a member said, "What greater gift could we give ourselves and others than the simple clear spiritual vision Science provides of our divinity. It's the pearl of great price."
Here are a few other brief items that came up.
1) Most of us were greatly aghast at the tone and content of the presidential press conference of the day. It seemed filled with arrogance and misinformation. As sometimes happens in our type of meeting we failed to move our concern into the area of healing Science; so we'll just have to do some work now, in concert with any of our readers who want to participate. Here are some bothersome subjects raised in the press conference: Gay marriage, Iraq, the economy and integrity in government.
2) Penis enlargement Internet ads are proving a challenge for one member. But he seems to be working it through by seeing them as language for Phallos, the god of fecundity. Of course substance and creativity are the province of the one God. The sheer number and claims of these ads are outlandish, hinting at the overwhelming presence and power (to human sense) of the real God.
3.) We talked of the arrogance and lack of caring sometimes accompanying wealth (or good looks or special talents). It's a two-way street: the one who has such benefits may think himself better than others but the others may also objectify and envy him for his possessions. Solution? All we could suggest was to keep our treasure in heaven — i.e., spiritual being — and be the expression of this, not just a human personality.
We took on some metaphysical work for the coming week:
1) A member is currently in a psychiatric hospital, awaiting release into a half-way residential situation. Two members are keeping in touch with him and we're all praying for his harmony and well-being.
2) We were contacted by a man who is deaf and legally (but not totally) blind. He wants to be in touch with a transgender woman. After informing him we're not a dating service but a Gay Christian Science group, we were able to mention the transgender nature of God and found him interested. We offered to send him a large print copy of Science and Health, where he can find this point explored. He said OK. We'll keep in touch with him through the mail.
3) A member pleaded the case for work on Africa's problems: poverty, famine, AIDS and malaria.
For next week we'll look into Gay Marriage. We were certainly amazed that our President, the president of all the people, has brought religion into his discussion of the subject, while the Pope has seen fit to boss around politicians to legislate Catholic cultic practices. Are these people confused about their proper societal roles?
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.
The suppositional antipode of divine infinite Spirit is the so-called human soul or spirit, in other words the five senses,—the flesh that warreth against Spirit. These so-called material senses must yield to the infinite Spirit, named God.
We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and "all things are become new." Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirituality, and the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good.
Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.
I do not maintain that anyone can exist in the flesh without food and raiment; but I do believe that the real man is immortal and that he lives in Spirit, not matter. Christian Science must be accepted at this period by induction. We admit the whole, because a part is proved and that part illustrates and proves the entire Principle. Christian Science can be taught only by those who are morally advanced and spiritually endowed, for it is not superficial, nor is it discerned from the standpoint of the human senses. Only by the illumination of the spiritual sense, can the light of understanding be thrown upon this Science, because Science reverses the evidence before the material senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of God and man.