Many patients who come into my practice are struggling with beliefs of lack. They fear lack of health, lack of funds, lack of love, lack of understanding or some other form of deprivation. This fear of lack is rooted in the belief that their supply is matter-based—some worldly contrivance or arrangement that they’ve been taught they need to survive.
To break this mesmeric and hurtful hold on thought, I strive to help them see their supply is coming from Spirit. That they do not lack at all if they look for their supply, or help, in the right form and in a spiritual place.
The effort to find abundance in matter—in things, in money, in the body, in self, in drugs, and in time—is what leaves one feeling empty handed. But to dig deeper into Truth, and discover the infinite riches of Spirit, taps into the wellspring of Life that truly satisfies and blesses.
The following story of “The Aquifer” illustrates how a matter-sense-based life can turn in upon us and make prospects for health and happiness pale, shrivel up and poof away when we don’t look beyond the obvious.
The Aquifer
Once there was a group of people who lived in a dry desert land. Life was challenging for these people. There was little food or water; in fact, the community only survived by clustering around a stream that ran though the land. Although it was meager, the stream offered fresh water to drink and irrigate a few crops. The people who lived by the stream managed to survive.
However, one year the stream began to run weaker than it had before. The following year, the water levels dropped even further. The people began to panic – after all, this was their only source of sustenance.
One evening, an argument broke out as one person accused his neighbor of siphoning off extra water. A few weeks later, there was another argument. The people began to live in fear of one another. Was that person stealing extra water? Did those people think that we were stealing? The sense of suspicion grew as the water continued to drop.
The community experienced great strain; neighbors eyed each other warily. When people drew drinking water from the stream, they did so surreptitiously. The townspeople barely spoke to each other, worried about sparking a conflict.
Finally, the stream dropped to a trickle. There was no longer enough water to sustain the community. A few people became belligerent, and accused others of causing the water to drop. Hostilities flared. Someone was injured in a conflict; this sparked a violent retribution. Soon thereafter, the community collapsed and disappeared.
Many years later, a new group of people stumbled upon the site of the old town.
“Curious,” one of them said, looking at the remains of buildings. “I wonder why these people left.”
“Look,” said another, “there’s no well anywhere. Perhaps these people never realized they were sitting over an aquifer. All they had to do was dig ten feet down, and they could have found enough water to last for lifetimes. It looks like they never realized how much they had.”
The “dry desert land” in this story is mortality.
The land of mortality is always lacking and will always be depraved and desolate in some way. When we believe we are material and that we live in this land and must rely upon its meager resources, we might become suspicious of our neighbor, become self-protective, and self-defensive. We fear lack, and eventually see lack. To preserve our existence, we compete with our neighbor for resources, and that leads to potential conflict. It seems, there is never enough, and we fight over what little remains until nothing is left for anyone.
Have you ever seen this scenario played out in a marriage, at the office, between children, amongst countries?
The cure is to dig deeper into the well-spring of Spirit. Spirit is the aquifer that never dries up and never leaves us wanting.
Spirit is Love, and Love is infinite.
To reach into the well of Love is to rely upon a fountain that never fails and always has enough for everyone. Drawing upon Love for supply wipes out fear and suspicion. We are no longer fighting over limited material resources and time. We’re abounding in joy, gratitude, forgiveness, compassion and love—all riches of God that multiply in our experience the more we use them.
Christian Science gives us the tools we need to dig deeper into the aquifer of Spirit. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, wrote,
The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being.
So, if you’re fighting with someone today, remember the parable of the aquifer. Ask yourself some probing questions, like, why are you fighting? Is it worth it? Is the conflict necessary? Or are you looking beyond the material sense of things and seeing the unlimited possibilities of Love that can bless everyone? Are you willing to forgive? Are you willing to give up a puny concept of Love and immerse thought in the unbounded ocean of Love where there is enough benefit to go around for everyone?
The same rule applies to health. What are you fighting over? Is it a material limited concept of health in the body that you fear losing? Are you willing to see beyond the body, beyond physicality, beyond matter, to the health of Mind which never fails or disappears? If so, the freedom you desire is yours to find. Divine Mind possesses it—and it’s found in the deep aquifer of eternal Life.
Wow!
This is an amazing post.
No wonder Jesus used parables to get through to the disciples. This story just makes what’s happening in all fighting situations clear.
Thank you for sharing Evan.
I agree it’s a wonderful post. And there’s something there, but it still seems abstract and intangible. Exactly what is Divine Mind? Yes, God is Mind, Life, Truth, Life, but what exactly does that mean? What is beyond the body and physicality that is understandable and tangible?
This is what fishing on the right side means.
Thank you,
Evan
To anon,
“What is divine Mind?”
Mind is the source of all right ideas, inspiration and progressive thoughts.
All beautiful music originated in Mind. All inspirational ideas and truths come from Mind. All new inventions grow out of some new view of Mind’s expansive possibilities.
Mind holds within itself all truth.
The principle of math did not originate in the brain. It existed in Mind. People discovered it and shared it with each other. But humans did not create it. They found it in Mind.
Same rule applies to all truth. It does not originate in the brain, it exists in Mind, and we can discover it there through our spiritual senses.
How about bad ideas, mean thoughts, and perversions? Clearly these didn’t originate in the brain either, but came from some source. Humans did not create it either, but it came from somewhere.
I was in a math class and my professor wrote the number 8 on the board. He also wrote “eight” and the Chinese character for eight, and drew 8 sticks, etc. and asked us “which one of these is the number 8?” Some students said only 8 was eight, others said the written word and the number 8,but not the sticks or the Chinese character. The professor said “these are all just symbols. The number eight exists only in mind”.
Wow.
This drove the point to me so clearly that the man we see (mortal, material man) is not who we are or where we exist. Like the written number 8, material man can be destroyed, annihilated, thrown in the trash. But that cannot change the fact that what that material man really represents exists and is held eternally in Mind. My math professor’s helped me to see this difficult concept ever so clearly!
Thanks for this post Evan.
To anon above,
“Where do bad thoughts come from?”
Good question! In time, and as we grow in spiritual understanding, the bad thoughts disappear and become as nothing in the totality of the one Mind, divine Love. Right now, because I have not demonstrated the totality of the one Mind, bad thoughts seem real to me at times. But as I increase my demonstration of spiritual mindedness, the bad thoughts diminish and are replaced by good ones.
“Where do bad thoughts come from?” Is similar to the question, “Where does error come from?”
Where does 2 + 2 = 5 come from? It comes from ignorance and mistaken reasoning. When the principle is applied correctly, the mistake disappears.
Divine Mind is the Principle of the universe. As we live true to this Principle, error disappears from our lives.
The answer to your question is worked out over time and through life experience with Truth and Love. For now, I trust in the truth taught by those much advanced in understanding over me, namely, Jesus Christ, that evil is a lie and a liar, in other words, not true. And we prove this as we grow in understanding too.
Bottomline: Evil is not real. Truth proves it so. But demonstration is needed to garner this truth and that takes patience, humlity and much spiritual growth.
Anyone else have a better way to answer the question?
It is particularly helpful for me to think of bad thoughts, perversions and sick thoughts like the highway mirage. Where is it and where does it come from? You can see it — you can even see reflections on it but when you get there– there is nothing there. It never was. It is appearance only — no substance or form.
When I am successful at seeing what God put there in the first place the awful view of a person or situation disappears also. Over and over when you look at testimonies by people who have been misused by others, they have found their freedom when they recognized God as being the only power and they no longer consented to that demoralized view of themselves, or another or a situation as having power over them.
It reminds me of a story Daniel Jensen used to tell of the person who goes to the train station for a trip and gets concerned when they see the tracks merge together just outside of town. They have to make a choice: either to go home because only a fool would get on a train and hurl off at high speed when the tracks all of a sudden join together OR they trust what they know to be true about vanishing points, optical illusions, and train tracks and they get on the train and happily go on their trip. Their third option would be to go down to the tracks and have a prayer meeting to “heal: the tracks from merging together — but weren’t the tracks perfect the whole time?
It’s not the tracks that are the problem, it is limited perception that is the problem.
There are millions of people in the world who have never heard of JS Bach or, let’s say, his Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It exists just the same. They have yet to discover it. If you can’t play it at your first piano lesson is there something wrong with the music — or you for that matter? Does it affect the “idea” of the music every time it is badly played? It may give others a misperception of the piece to hear it badly done, but that doesn’t hurt the piece itself. If every copy in existence was destroyed, the piece would still remain because the music is in the idea — not in the paper and ink. Just like math is not in the pencil, it’s in the mathematical concept. The notes and the numbers are just an effective way to communicate the idea but at this point in our understanding it has to still be learned and practiced if we want to be effective in recognizing and using it.
I don’t know if this is helpful, it is just what helps me. As I become better at understanding what life in Spirit looks like and acts like and practice living that way, I also communicate the ideas of Spirit to those around me more clearly and experience the rewards of spiritual living — health, harmony, supply, and on and on.
That’s tremendously helpful! Thanks for posting.
I like your reference to music as I was thinking along the same lines. Music is not in the sheet music. It is just a way of communication.
I have played music for many years. One has to be careful not to get caught up on the symbols. In music, one can analysis the sheet backwards and forwards, and get really wrapped up in it. The important thing is the performance.
Two different people can play the same piece perfectly as written, but one performance will be beautiful and the other flat. That is because music is not physical.
I imagine the same holds true to spiritual practice. We can know the letter of the law, but without the Spirit, it is just flat.
Evan, I wish I had stopped to read this at the beginning of the day rather than at the end. I will do better tonight and tomorrow. This was a good reminder.
Thanks again Evan and also to the commentators. This is what I am pondering on and I’m sure it is getting a little easier each time I read or hear encouraging ideas such as this!. Like what a CS lecturer said “it is not easy but it is that simple”. I love what Mrs. Eddy said “Practice makes perfect.”