The Golden Rule
December 30, 2004
The First Commandment of the Hebrew Decalogue, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and the Golden Rule are the all-in-all of Christian Science.
First Meeting: December 23, 2004
"I didn't realize Mrs. Eddy felt so strongly about the Golden Rule."
"You can see how her prophesies are coming true today. The Christian Science movement is failing because we're not following the Golden Rule."
"How do you see that?"
"Well, it's not enough to just do unto others in some legalistic, perfunctory way — we have to really practice Christian Science in all our affairs. We have to behold in Science even as we'd want to be beheld in Science."
"That's ratcheting things up. You're talking global seeing — seeing everyone as divine idea."
"Yes. That's it."
"Would you care to tell us how you see Tom Delay."
"You do have a way of getting right to the point. But if Jesus could love Judas, I should be able to muster some love for Tom Delay."
"That's easy with Science. You don't have to agree with his partisan beliefs. Just place them in a proper context, as his highest sense of good, which probably includes as much evil as good. Don't stop there; dive right through the duality to Good itself and reside there. That's where Love is."
"Here's another example. A member who can't be here asked me to bring up Milton Simon's article in the October 1964 Christian Science Journal about healing. He says the patient doesn't need to be receptive for the Christian Science treatment to heal him. Healing rests entirely on the vision of the practitioner."
"I agree with that. Time spent trying to work on mortal mind or convert it would be better used realizing divine Mind as all. How does Mrs. Eddy put it? Here it is: 'In Science, Mind is one, including noumenon and phenomena, God and His thoughts.' (Science and Health, pg. 114:10) In other words, there's no mortal mind to work on!"
"That's good for me to hear. I have to administer drugs at the hospital as part of my job. But I can know the Truth of man's perfection."
"And also that the drugs cannot harm."
"What about all the painkillers now being called harmful? We should extend our Christian Science love and care to those who've been taking them. It's not a sin to want to be without pain. In Truth, every pill-taker and non pill-taker in innocent, unharmed and without pain."
"I've been upset by all the new revelations of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. This time the methods are even more disgusting than before and there's inter-department intrigue. The abusers are posing as FBI agents to veil their true identity, which as far as I know has not come to light."
"This is such a bad example for us to set as we move through the area proclaiming freedom's on the march. It's also dangerous for our troops who'll be treated the same way."
"Let's not be naive. You have to expect this kind of thing or worse in a war situation."
"Well, maybe in belief, but let's work to heal it. I mean not only the abuses but any sense of error, by anyone. We don't need to stand aghast. There's one Mind only, unfolding its harmony as everyone."
"I wonder if Christian Scientists don't have a special duty in practicing the Golden Rule. We have the tools to behold man in Science. Does anyone else? I don't think many others do. So if we don't practice beholding the spiritual truth for ourselves and others, are we practicing the Golden Rule?"
"Good question. Spiritual wealth requires spiritual generosity. If I'm a Bill Gates of spiritual resources, should I just sit on my mountain top and horde them for personal use?"
"I discovered a new approach to addictions this week in my work with channeling. In reality we're at-one with our Source but if we believe we're separated from it we become vulnerable to an addiction as we thrash about for meaning and pleasure in our lives. If we take an addiction on, it rapidly becomes the center of our universe. It assumes all the power of our Source and we can't do without it. To recover from smoking, my channel said first I must not condemn myself when I want a cigarette but realize each time I reach for one I'm actually reaching out for my Source."
"That's close to how the 12 steps work."
"So, how's it going with the smoking?"
"You know the approach is working. I'm losing my taste for tobacco. I've stopped inhaling!"
"That movie we've talked about a lot What The Bleep Do We Know? describes addictions just as your channel does. They're a block to realizing our divinity."
"Anything can become an addiction. Sickness, even sitting here in this chair. A belief in mortal mind is the addiction and the understanding of one Mind is the solution."
"I need to talk about my situation. I'm close to being homeless. My welfare fell through a few months ago and I was evicted from my apartment. My aunt took me in but then she died. I'm living in her apartment illegally now and could be put in the streets at any moment."
"How can we help you?"
"Do you see anything in relation to the Golden Rule that could help you?"
"No. I'm worried to death I'll end up in the streets."
"Do you feel like praying about the problem? Can you forgive the people at the welfare agency?"
"Absolutely not. I'd like to give them a Golden Rule and treat them the way they've treated me."
"In other words an eye for a eye, a tooth for a tooth."
"Right, only worse."
"I think we'd have to bring the First Commandment in here. We have to see God as the only power before we can love anyone or secure safety."
"Would you like to read some Christian Science — here's a Sentinel."
"No thanks."
"Can we pray for you?"
"If you want, but I've got real problems. I need help."
"We'll work on this metaphysically."
"I'm outta here!"
"Well, I don't think we helped him very much — but prayer is the most powerful thing we can offer."
"I think we got a clear picture of an addiction. He's hugging that problem like a crack addiction. So as we discussed earlier — we can't improve mortal mind and we must not condemn either him or ourselves. We're all reaching desperately for our Source, for harmony, home and heaven. Just as you're losing a taste for tobacco, we'll lose a desire for self righteousness and he for what? Righteous indignation and fear?"
"Thanks. I feel better about what just happened. Let's keep the focus on the facts of being and not on that messy chemicalization."
Second Meeting: December 30, 2004
"What can we see about the situation around the Indian Ocean?"
"I know we shouldn't stand aghast at something if we want to help heal it in Science, but this is a hard one."
"You can't really point to global warming or deforestation."
"No, nothing so simple. But isn't every problem traceable to a belief in matter?"
"Good point. In my Association meeting one year a fellow student asked our teacher why a plane full of innocent people had crashed a couple of days earlier. He said all you need is a belief in matter to have a plane crash. All you need for an earthquake and tsunami is a belief in matter."
"Yesterday I was getting the flu or something. I called a practitioner and during the night I was having trouble figuring out what to cling to. Then it came to me to just let go of all the material beliefs I was clinging to; that would leave only Christian Science to operate in the case."
"All the material beliefs?"
"Well some major ones. There was fear something big-time was developing, so I let that go. Also a belief in contagion and its associated delusion of bodily boundaries waiting to be invaded. I saw through that to man's infinity — all of us including all others as divine idea. Suddenly I was flooded with light. I was infinite pure being. I reached out to Asia and wrapped it in this light. I felt we could both have a rapid recovery in the relative sense of ourselves because in the absolute only harmony was present."
"A few years ago I had a near death experience from drowning. I'd been swimming and got trapped under a tree that had fallen in the water. I couldn't find my way out and became panicky. I started flailing about but It soon seemed clear I would die. I relaxed and actually became very peaceful. Then the oddest thing happened. I started moving and the entangling branches seemed to part to let me through. I was guided to the surface. I've thought of this incident all week and prayed this peaceful guidance is there for all those alive and dead in south Asia."
"I saw Queen Elizabeth's Christmas message on TV. She talked of tolerance among all segments of society and even appeared in Hindu garb at an Indian temple. Prince Charles was shown talking to a group of Muslims."
"What a great idea — did anyone here do something like that?"
"Oh, heavens no. Talk about taking the Christ out of Christmas."
"I think the Queen was living the universal Christ rather than bowing before a word. That's the Golden Rule."
"I looked up the Golden Rule on our web site's search engine and found we'd done some work on it several times, principally under the topics [#topic=20010628#] and [#topic=19980924#]."
"I need help on something. I'm writing a screenplay and remembered some great sketches of scenes I did years ago. I can't find them in the boxes and duffle bags at my storage facility."
"They're not lost — there's just lots of stuff there."
"Right."
"The one Mind includes both you and the manuscripts. Listen for divine intelligence to take you right to the spot where the papers are."
"You know including these scenes in the screenplay would make it much more interesting. That relates to our topic in the sense that anyone working in the arts owes it to the public to make his offering as interesting as he can."
"Here's something that might help. Last night I went to the movies and lost a bag I was carrying with my dance shoes in it. I'd been all over the cineplex trying to get an earphone that worked. When I realized the bag was gone, I focused on the idea that nothing is lost in Mind. Then I retraced my steps. I had plenty of time before the movie started and visited with all the people at the various places I'd been. Everyone there knows me — I'm their star customer! I had a good time and of course eventually the bag turned up. I couldn't get an earphone that worked, but it didn't matter. I could hear the movie perfectly."
"What movie?"
"Phantom of the Opera."
"No wonder none of those earphones are working. They all burned out."
"Back to the Indian Ocean. What is it about Indonesia that produces such horrendous events. There was the eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815 and then Krakatoa in 1883. Both catastrophes cost hundreds of thousands of lives and affected the weather of the whole planet for years."
"Well, Science and Health has some wonderful passages about the tranquility and well being of planet earth. Here are a couple:
- Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity. (pg. 507:24)
- To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeriform. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas. (pg. 511:23)
"What about it? I mean is it true? Here's what Mrs. Eddy says in the Textbook: 'In the illusion of death, mortals wake to the knowledge of two facts: (1) that they are not dead; (2) that they have but passed the portals of a new belief. Truth works out the nothingness of error in just these ways.'"(pg. 251:8)
"To put it in Golden Rule terms, if I were in one of those devastated places, would I want Christian Scientists elsewhere to sit in despondency wringing their hands, or would I want them to be praying to realize the perfection of man and the universe, whatever the senses might be saying?"
"That's what we discovered last week. We have special duties as students of Science, with our spiritual largesse and the tools to mobilize it for healing. It would be a severe dereliction to fritter away our time on trivia when the call comes."
"We have to end now. Do we have a request for next week's topic? Maybe something relating to the new year?"
"How about Time?"
"I think we did it once before ([#topic=19991216#]), but we can always come up with fresh insights and experience."
"Is it Time then?"
"Yes."
"Fine with me."
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.
Mental malpractice is a bland denial of Truth, and is the antipode of Christian Science. To mentally argue in a manner that can disastrously affect the happiness of a fellow-being—harm him morally, physically, or spiritually—breaks the Golden Rule and subverts the scientific laws of being. This, therefore, is not the use but the abuse of mental treatment, and is mental malpractice. It is needless to say that such a subversion of right is not scientific. Its claim to power is in proportion to the faith in evil, and consequently to the lack of faith in good. Such false faith finds no place in, and receives no aid from, the Principle or the rules of Christian Science; for it denies the grand verity of this Science, namely, that God, good, has all power.
Abiding in Love, not one of you can be separated from me; and the sweet sense of journeying on together, doing unto others as ye would they should do unto you, conquers all opposition, surmounts all obstacles, and secures success. If you falter, or fail to fulfil this Golden Rule, though you should build to the heavens, you would build on sand.
What is the Principle and rule of Christian Science?
Infinite query! Wonder in heaven and on earth,—who shall say? The immaculate Son of the Blessed has spoken of them as the Golden Rule and its Principle, God who is Love. Listen, and he illustrates the rule: "Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, . . . Whosoever . . . shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Harmony is heaven. Science brings out harmony; but this harmony is not understood unless it produces a growing affection for all good, and consequent disaffection for all evil, hypocrisy, evil-speaking, lust, envy, hate. Where these exist, Christian Science has no sure foothold: they obscure its divine element, and thus seem to extinguish it. Even the life of Jesus was belittled and belied by personalities possessing these defacing deformities. Only the devout Marys, and such as lived according to his precepts, understood the concrete character of him who taught—by the wayside, in humble homes, to itching ears and to dull disciples—the words of Life.
No Incorrect Literature. SECT. 11. A member of this Church shall neither buy, sell, nor circulate Christian Science literature which is not correct in its statement of the divine Principle and rules and the demonstration of Christian Science. Also the spirit in which the writer has written his literature shall be definitely considered. His writings must show strict adherence to the Golden Rule, or his literature shall not be adjudged Christian Science. A departure from the spirit or letter of this By-Law involves schisms in our Church and the possible loss, for a time, of Christian Science.
The Golden Rule. SECT. 27. A member of The Mother Church shall not haunt Mrs. Eddy's drive when she goes out, continually stroll by her house, or make a summer resort near her for such a purpose.