The notes for this week encompass the meetings of July 8, 15, and 22.

Session I

"OK, let's start by looking at the Transitional Qualities outlined at the bottom of page 115 of Science and Health. They're humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. If we practice these in our daily lives we'll progress from depravity towards spiritual understanding. We'll be growing up in Science."

"I think that's true but they could also be seen as a movement from head to heart. When we're locked in the head or intellectualism every atrocity is possible. My experience of what passes for Christian Science today — and I'm not letting myself off the hook — is that it's very heady, without much heart."

"You've hit the main point here. Look at some of the words Mrs. Eddy chooses — humanity, affection, compassion, meekness — all heart qualities."

"That's the bottom line in Christian Science, after all the tinkling cymbals and miraculous demonstrations — how much do I love?"

"Yes, but watch out! The heart can be just as wrong as the mind. There needs to be a balance, and a non-dualistic experience of both."

"Good point. I'd also like to get clear the notion of growing up in Science. Both Jesus and Mrs. Eddy emphasized the need for childlikeness in the practice of Science."

"What was that story you were telling me about Buddha?"

"When he rejected asceticism as a means to enlightenment, he came upon a milkmaid on the road and accepted milk from her. As he drank it down he became enlightened. In the East no adult would drink milk — it's strictly for the children."

"Thanks, the story tells me not only had he accepted his natural desires but was willing to become as a child before the facts of being."

"After that he went and sat under the bodhi tree. I wonder what the Science of that is."

"I'd say what we need is practice, not profession."

"I want to talk about the tarot card for Death. Here are some aspects of it, as outlined in Eden Gray's book The Complete Guide to the Tarot. The symbolism of this card points to transformation and enlightenment, not crude death. She says, 'old ideas give way, the king must fall, old concepts are traded for new, the personal gives way to the universal and consciousness expands.'"

"Wow — is she Christian Scientist?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe Mrs. Eddy worked with the tarot."

"Death is such a great mystery. I still mourn for friends who died years ago. Time helps, but the yearning for their presence is still with me."

"I've found I can feel the ongoing existence and even presence of the departed through communion with Love or the one Mind."

"I'm always shocked when a Christian Scientist dies — didn't they know better? I remember how disturbed I was when I heard that a Christian Science teacher and his wife died as they prayed to save their house in one of those fires in California. I called a practitioner and he said they should have sought safety but in any case that was their demonstration, and who was I to malpractice it? Instead I could be a vessel of healing Love for the case."

"That's a good treatment for any situation or relationship."

"The deepest secret of Christian Science is that there is only One. What we're calling Love, vessels of Love, transitional qualities or relationships are all the One in operation."

"I had to practice the presence of Love or One during the week, with the continuing intrusion into my apartment of smoke and gases from cigarette addicts, restaurateurs and dry cleaners in my neighborhood. Perhaps I'll eventually have to call the Environmental Protection Agency. But before that, I'm working to see the situation in Science. In belief there seems to be unquiet and greed. As a student of Science, could I supply peace and plenty? Look at this from Science and Health: 'The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good.'"(pg. 518:15)

"That's taking the bull by the horns. We can have pitiful patience with the ills of mankind."(See the Readings, Science and Health, pg. 366:30-9).

"Yes. Did you notice how harsh Mrs. Eddy is with the letter of Science. She speaks of its grave-clothes and hecatombs of gushing theories. A hecatomb is a sacrificial slaughtering of 100 oxen. I think she's warning us not to beat people over the head with words and concepts if we want to practice the presence of divine healing Love."

Session II

"Could we see all the wacky remarks by Senators pushing the Federal Marriage Amendment as sins to be lovingly lifted off them and mankind — to reveal God's man and not a bunch of antagonists fighting over concepts?"

"Good idea. Seeing them in the wrong light would perpetuate the problem. We could do the same about the Kathleen Clementson case."

"You know the Board refuses to explain its actions. So, rumors are circulating that her departure was not over Lesbianism or marriage but for so called 'other reasons.'"

"You mean they're going to leave it hanging like that?"

"That's the kind of thing that starts up when there's no clarity. For me it is quite clear that the 'other reasons' are just the Board's fear and befuddlement before right-wing pressure, and its embarrassment over departing from any discernible principle in the case."

"OK, can we have pitiful patience with their fears and derelictions?"

"Fine. But have a thought — a clear healing thought — for those they've harmed by their foolishness."

"If anyone has been harmed by what the Board has done they need to wake up from their co-dependency and be free."

"Let's give us all a gift in Science and see everyone as the structure of Truth and Love and Principle."

"That's fine to say, but do you feel it?"

"Ouch! You're right, I don't. It has to be a felt experience, not just words, not just grave-clothes. Let me say this — I propose we work in Science on being Truth, Love, Principle and really feel it."

"As I worked on transitional qualities I saw that I must live the absolute Science set forth in the Third Degree on page 116 of Science and Health (see Readings). This sets up a transcendent function — as the Jungians would say — which gives the absolute interpretation of the relative."

"So you end up appearing to live in the Second Degree in your every day life."

"Exactly."

"I had a dream this week in which I appeared to be walking on water but actually I was on the back of whales as they alternated diving and coming up for air. My father was with me and we were concerned whether we'd reach land. Later I was alone, but the thought came, 'Just relax; you don't have to be afraid. Let the whales move you.' At that point I woke up."

"Would you like an interpretation?"

"Sure."

"The whales are your divine Selfhood, which your ego is learning to trust. Your dualistic, unhelpful father imago disappears to reappear as impersonal but helpful advice to relax and let it happen. Overall, it's about staying in the flow or alignment with your divinity."

"I'd like to describe something that came up for me during the week. I was walking with a friend through parts of Greenwich Village I hadn't been in for years. I was flooded with memories, some of which I shared with my friend. Eventually I became self-conscious over how much I was living in the past and even edited out many of the memories. I thought, 'Boy, you're really getting old to have so many thoughts of the past.' I started trying to come up with future scenarios but soon realized that was no more scientific than dwelling on the past. It's all dualistic concepts! A statement came to me from Mrs. Eddy's autobiography. I looked it up when I got home and it has helped me deal with this situation. Here it is: 'Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth. To this end, but only to this end, such narrations may be admissible and advisable; but if spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is lost, and the argument, with its rightful conclusions, becomes correspondingly obscure. The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.' (Retrospection and Introspection, pg. 21:25-2) So my work in Science, whether I'm obsessed with the past, the present or the future is to translate material occurrences and fantasies into divine ideas."

Session III

"We've all heard of unconditional Love, but has anyone thought of unconditional Life or Mind or Truth?"

"That's a new idea to me, but I suppose in a Christian Science treatment, in the midst of the relative sense of life or truth with resulting problems, I've gotten a glimpse of a divine synonym unconditioned by personal sense."

"Our readings from the Bible about Elijah and Elisha prompted me to look up what Mrs. Eddy says of Elias — meaning Elijah, in Aramaic — in the 'Glossary' of Science and Health. Here it is: 'ELIAS. Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to material sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; the basis of immortality.' (pg. 585:9) She's saying he's symbolic of Christian Science and we can redeem a material concept with Christian Science."

"That reminds me of how I looked at a dental appointment earlier this week. I had to get some crowns put in. Using our topic and a bit of psychology, I thought of how shrinks talk of transitional objects — a fancy term for teddy bears, which parents give to a child to start moving his affections off them and into the world. The dentist was my transitional object leading me from material suppositions and problems with my teeth to the Truth of their perfection."

"Huh? Is that Christian Science?"

"Well, I don't know but in this way of seeing things Jesus would be a transitional object for mankind in our transit from matter to Spirit. And as Mrs. Eddy said, mortals do seem to need such help. I'd parlay that idea into saying any material means, so-called, can act as a transitional object or teddy bear accompanying us on our quest for ascension."

"Has anyone had any further thoughts about The Mother Church and Gay people?"

"I'm amazed the Board hasn't said anything about Kathleen Clementson's forced retirement."

"And they won't."

"What we have to do now is to keep things moving towards greater visibility and acceptance. in Boston and in the field."

"There was quite an article in Bay Windows this week by a Gay member of The Mother Church describing the local sense of freedom for LGBT folks."

"The lifeblood of our movement is in the periodicals, sharing healings and metaphysical breakthroughs. As long as these are closed to openly Gay people and our stories we're not part of the movement."

"The Board is still afraid to open these up, but I'm glad the ushers in Boston smile at Gay people."

"It's more than that — we can now take class and are not attacked in the periodicals. As for sharing we just have to do it in settings like our group and Emergence.

"How do we change the Board? It's completely autocratic."

"Mrs. Eddy set it up that way after a brief experiment with democracy resulted in chaos. I suppose she thought we'd be driven to prayer if we needed some changes in Boston."

"We should not look to the Board for spiritual direction. They're there to handle the business of the Church. But remember they set policy on what is and is not included in the periodicals and who is and who is not hired and fired."

"Something very interesting is happening below the surface. The Mother Church is still fulfilling its function as the structure of Truth, Love and Principle rousing the dormant thought. There's a great deal of discussion and gossip about the Clementson marriage and Gay people in general. The Church is acting as an alchemical retort, containing and heating the mixture. This is working towards healing not only the Church, but because of the power of metaphysical thinking, society in general."

"Did you ever think that Mrs. Eddy's point about there being no evil is literally true? It's not just an affirmation we soothe ourselves with. As the world gets a better grip on quantum mechanics we'll see that if everyone is everywhere throughout all time, there could then be no evil in the set up or the universe would immediately grind to a halt. Here's something from Unity of Good: 'If God could be conscious of sin, His infinite power would straightway reduce the universe to chaos.' (pg. 13:13) What we call evil is just some opening to our infinity and eternity which we seize with the personal senses and bring down suffering upon our heads. Let go of these senses and there'd be an adjustment to a bigger, broader life."

"We're getting near the end of our time. Does anyone have a topic to suggest for next time?"

"How about Memories? We could work on personal and world memories and convert them back into their non dualistic reality."

"OK, folks?"

"OK. Sure."