Right Activity II
July 15, 1999
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
Keeping our human endeavors in alignment with their divine wellsprings seemed to be the key issue for us all during our second week working on Right Activity. Of course, each had a different method of seeking this alignment, but once achieved the insights and healings flowed.
Here's a summary of some insights shared at the meeting:
- Right activity will often force itself upon us — even against our will. Think of Paul on the road to Damascus. Mrs. Eddy's writings are full of reassurances in the face of such inharmonious situations, which in reality are the birth of a new way of seeing and functioning. One member particularly likes this from Science and Health: "The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the strength and permanency of Spirit," (p. 293:24). On the other hand, seeming harmony in the human belief of things, not anchored in Spirit, will often hit a snag — thus inviting us to go up higher.
- While God's grace is ever-present in reality to save us from error, it must be accessed. The "daily duties" from the Manual of The Mother Church (see Readings) are intended to keep our thought free of hatred and fear so that we can feel the presence of God on an ongoing basis. When we need an extra boost, a couple of our members like the simple, clear cut method set out in Science and Health, p. 15:14-18. Mrs. Eddy recommends going within, denying sin or duality and resting in the understanding of God's allness. We also endorsed the idea that all — every person, place and thing — has to be included in this work, otherwise a troublesome dualism, requiring eventual resolution, will have been set in motion.
- One member heard a couple of limiting prognostications in the arena of the physical sciences during the week. One was that science is progressing so fast that the human brain will be unable to keep up with it. The other was that in a few years we will have miniaturized semiconductor chips to the limit — the sheer smallness of the chips will make insulation impossible. Thank God for Christian Science! He was quickly able to see that infinite divine Mind will bring forth whatever discoveries and inventions will ameliorate these situations. The so-called physical sciences, like medicine and theology, are nothing more than human belief systems, constantly being disrupted as the Truth of being becomes clearer to human perception. Students of Christian Science can help make the needed adjustments and transitions harmonious, by resting in the ultimate reality even as the half-way mechanisms unfold.
- A member, while exercising at his gym, was quite taken with a non-Gay man, who seemed available for some flirting, perhaps more. When this man went to the showers, our member thought of following him into the dressing room, to at least get a good look at his body. Suddenly he saw how silly this would be — he would be using the man's body as a kind of pornographic image. He exercised restraint. A few days later he again was attracted to someone under similar circumstances and found himself offering helpful advice which was totally ignored! He was stunned, but realized that his earlier restraint had not healed anything but represented no more than a behavioral nicety. He went to work with Science; he immediately saw that he was treating these attractive men as dualistic entities — beautiful yes, but unavailable. He himself was adrift in dualism — desire and fear battling for ascendancy. The key was the way Mrs. Eddy evaluates desire as prayer. He was able to translate the whole thing into its non-dual Reality and live it to some extent, to his great relief. The model for this healing is stated well in Science and Health, p. 328: 6-13.
- A member was informed that new windows would be installed in her building a few days later. She uses rooms in her apartment for storage and could see no way for the workmen to get to the windows to do their work. She prayed for a harmonious adjustment and worked with the line "Love's work and Love must fit," (The Christian Science Hymnal, no. 51:2). A friend was suddenly available to give her an extra hand in rearranging things and the workmen were able to change all the windows, save one which was truly marooned. She went to the foreman not knowing what to say, but before she could talk he advised her that he had run out of windows, and would be back in two months to complete the job — giving her plenty of time to clear the needed space.
- Another member saw a third of the value of one of his investments whisked away one morning based on an earnings forecast. He reassured himself with the phrase "Loss is gain," (The Christian Science Hymnal, no. 207:3) and quickly worked to lose a material sense of himself, his supply and the company and live them all as the divine reality they are. The next day he took the article in the paper and reversed the "causes" such as, "The merger isn't going well," and, "There's a legacy of funny accounting and bad karma," and, "The CEO is under treatment for brain cancer." There is only one Cause and effect — God and His reflection, man and the universe. As the week wore on the stock stabilized and other sources of supply opened up to ameliorate the problem. Others at the meeting recounted how they had seen sources of supply open seemingly miraculously by sticking with the Truth that demand cannot outstrip supply and that there is a constant flow of good from God to man.
- Discussing Christian Science treatment, two members devoted some attention to the continuing AIDS problem. They put away the childish things of blame, guilt and shame on the basis that they were but the stock in trade of mortal mind, non-existent in reality. They went on to see the facts of Science: substance and action are entirely divine. Life and Love are God — and man is His reflection, 100 percent.
- One member, troubled by the news from Iran, Northern Ireland, and China and Taiwan tried to handle all the beliefs, to his great frustration. Then he remembered what a practitioner had said once — select the synonym that most nearly meets the need in the circumstance and stick with that. He saw all these as arguments about "principle", so it was easy for him to relax into the presence of divine Principle alone directing the affairs of man. Now when he hears news stories about these areas, he just zeroes in on the facts of Principle. He was able to do this with the squabbles in Congress over the health plan — accessing the synonym Life in this case.
- The predicted cataclysms in various protestant sects this summer as their conferences deal with the position of Gay people in their midst can be seen in the light of the absolute understanding of Church (see Science and Health, p. 583: 12-13). As we know, trouble is always brewing on this subject in all religions — which sadly have made themselves into defenders of the out of date. But students of Science don't need to cooperate with such malpractice. We can aid in the movement of religion towards its destiny, the oneness of the allness.
Consciousness, as well as action, is governed by Mind,—is in God, the origin and governor of all that Science reveals.
In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action.
God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished, can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No exhaustion follows the action of this Mind, according to the apprehension of divine Science. The highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, is in holy work.
Life is God, or Spirit, the supersensible eternal. The universe and man are the spiritual phenomena of this one infinite Mind. Spiritual phenomena never converge toward aught but infinite Deity. Their gradations are spiritual and divine; they cannot collapse, or lapse into their opposites, for God is their divine Principle. They live, because He lives; and they are eternally perfect, because He is perfect, and governs them in the Truth of divine Science, whereof God is the Alpha and Omega, the centre and circumference.
To attempt the calculation of His mighty ways, from the evidence before the material senses, is fatuous. It is like commencing with the minus sign, to learn the principle of positive mathematics.
God was not in the whirlwind. He is not the blind force of a material universe. Mortals must learn this; unless, pursued by their fears, they would endeavor to hide from His presence under their own falsities, and call in vain for the mountains of unholiness to shield them from the penalty of error.
Jesus taught us to walk over, not into or with, the currents of matter, or mortal mind. His teachings beard the lions in their dens. He turned the water into wine, he commanded the winds, he healed the sick,—all in direct opposition to human philosophy and so-called natural science. He annulled the laws of matter, showing them to be laws of mortal mind, not of God. He showed the need of changing this mind and its abortive laws. He demanded a change of consciousness and evidence, and effected this change through the higher laws of God. The palsied hand moved, despite the boastful sense of physical law and order. Jesus stooped not to human consciousness, nor to the evidence of the senses. He heeded not the taunt, "That withered hand looks very real and feels very real;" but he cut off this vain boasting and destroyed human pride by taking away the material evidence. If his patient was a theologian of some bigoted sect, a physician, or a professor of natural philosophy,—according to the ruder sort then prevalent,—he never thanked Jesus for restoring his senseless hand; but neither red tape nor indignity hindered the divine process. Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities. He said that the kingdom of heaven is here, and is included in Mind; that while ye say, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest, I say, Look up, not down, for your fields are already white for the harvest; and gather the harvest by mental, not material processes. The laborers are few in this vineyard of Mind-sowing and reaping; but let them apply to the waiting grain the curving sickle of Mind's eternal circle, and bind it with bands of Soul.
CHARITY AND INVALIDS
Mrs. Eddy endeavors to bestow her charities for such purposes only as God indicates. Giving merely in compliance with solicitations or petitions from strangers, incurs the liability of working in wrong directions. As a rule, she has suffered most from those whom she has labored much to benefit—also from the undeserving poor to whom she has given large sums of money, worse than wasted. She has, therefore, finally resolved to spend no more time or money in such uncertain, unfortunate investments. She has qualified students for healing the sick, and has ceased practice herself in order to help God's work in other of its highest and infinite meanings, as God, not man, directs. Hence, letters from invalids demanding her help do not reach her. They are committed to the waste-basket by her secretaries.
"Charity suffereth long and is kind," but wisdom must govern charity, else love's labor is lost and giving is unkind. As it is, Mrs. Eddy is constantly receiving more important demands on her time and attention than one woman is sufficient to supply. It would therefore be as unwise for her to undertake new tasks, as for a landlord who has not an empty apartment in his house, to receive more tenants.
A Rule for Motives and Acts. SECTION 1. Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.