A woman lamented to me that she was having a hard time seeing herself as spiritual. She could list qualities of Spirit she expressed, but seeing herself as wholly spiritual felt elusive and abstract.
In thinking about what I’ve learned about individuality in Christian Science, that our individuality is purely spiritual, very tangible and concrete to spiritual sense, and eternally ours, I replied to her, “I am content to know that if my physical body vanished this instant, I would be perfectly fine. I would still have shape, form, outline, color, texture, and substance. I would still be moving around, seeing, hearing, living, loving and enjoying the wonderful Life God has given me to live. But it would all be happening in Spirit, not in matter. That the disappearance of matter is not the disappearance of me, because I am not material. I am spiritual! I can never lose me, a spiritual child of God.”
People who cling to physicality have a hard time identifying with spiritual individuality because they believe matter is the sum and substance of their being. But it is not. Matter is temporal. Physicality is temporal, here today, gone tomorrow. We are not temporal bodies. We are eternal spiritual beings. Everyone will get this figured out sooner or later. Sooner is better! When you identify with Spirit, rather than matter, you’ll find it easier to see yourself as a spiritual being, here and now.
As Mary Baker Eddy writes, “The individuality of man is no less tangible because it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and enables him to conquer sin, disease, and death” (Science and Health, p. 317).
Start with Spirit, think out from Spirit, identify with Spirit, and you’ll be on your way to understanding what it means to be spiritual.
Thank you Evan… wonderfully clear, explicit and so beautifully understandable.
Spirit View is my daily spiritual HUG❣️
If my physical body was to vanish etc I would still have form & colour etc . What I don’t understand is we are spiritual or spirit yet it is mentioned often about a physical body implying we have one? as above?
I am not clear about being fully spiritual,but dismiss that I am physical and pray about spiritual qualities.
It is a battle…..
Thank you Evan, I was just considering the point this morning. Lynn, Mrs Eddy acknowledges in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, that we do indeed find ourselves in battle. You are not alone 😉
S&H p254
“God requires perfection, but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path.”
Thank you
MRS. EDDY STATES IN SCIENCE & HEALTH: pg. 123:11
“The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas.”
My understanding is that the so-called physical senses are the human condition where Christ is teaching us how to progress from this temporal condition with all its material problems, (which we
have wrongly believed in) to find ourselves to be spiritual and totally in accord with God.as His image and likeness. Christ gives us the understanding that all material discords – such, as sickness,
sin,and death etc. – are nothing to do with Life, God, therefore nothing to do with us, as His reflection, – and how we can recognise these falae claims and cast them out as unreal with the spiritual opposite – looking away from material things and accepting only the spiritual thoughts, which constitute our true being..
The seeming physicality which seems to be real to our human
senses,, gradually fades away as we practice living the spiritual
facts that we are learning – until we find our true spiritual being
Christlike and immortal. We need to let Christ teach us, correct
us, and guide us on the right pathway which is lit with Love all the way.
In the same boat. cannot understand. so if my hand is spiritual but looks physical is that a distorted view? Philip Hockley tried to explain re reflection in his wonderful lecture. However I still could not understand. Most frustrating.
dear Caz, actually it’s simple to understand, if you see your Hand as a God given idea which can express God given qualities like playing a beautifully sounding Instrument, drawing a pretty picture, helping your neighbor lovingly when neccessary or any other good work doing with your hands that points to the spirituality of your hands doing all this to glorify our Father-Mother God who is Spirit. And one certainly can look with gratitude and joy at your hands etc.
Gratitude for all ideas and qualities God gave us is healing.
Thank you very very much dear Evan for your so loving and very loved and cristal clear spiritual view on our wonderful divine Spirituality which is for sure our true individuality as our creator is Spirit itself – see the Scientific Statement of Being by Mary Baker Eddy! And I am very thankful for this week’s lesson sermon, which to my understanding is pointing to our total Spirituality! ♡
it’s like a reflection. in a mirror. the physical is a reflection of the spiritual. The mirror can become misted, dirty or broken leading us to believe the altered image we see. Once we clean the mirror we see the true reflection.
The spiritual reflects the spiritual. What the human mind calls “physical” is but a limtied sense of what exists in Spirit. Enlightened thought drops the finite view and adopts the infinite, the spiritual. That’s when the physical sense grows less and the spiritual grows more until the physical totally yields to the spiritual. That happened for Jesus when he ascended.
Thank you very much Evan, for your further wonderfully metaphysical clarification of our natural being in Spirit! ❤️
Perfectly explained Evan. Makes total sense. I hope that lady was satisfied with your words.
Thank you for this clear explanation, Evan! I love pondering this Truth and acknowledge it often. It reminds me of another explanation from Mrs. Eddy: “Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but without material accompaniments.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 310:5–8 (to The)
In reality, we live in divine Mind, divine consciousness where all is thought, idea. There no material accompaniments with any limitation. It’s really fun, and very comforting, to grow in understanding this truth.
Grateful for you and your blog, Evan!!
Question:
HOW…to…be…Awake…In…The…Dream?
God–divine Love, alone–can answer this …anguished…question…..IS answering it,
in the Here and Now, through the activity
of divine Love (“Christ”) in our “human lives.”
Humility sees this being done,
and rejoices!
Thank You, God!
“Are we awake?” from the March 22, 1989 issue of The Christian Science Monitor:
https://www.csmonitor.com/1989/0322/mrc675.html/?src=shared
I have big problems with understanding this issue of spirit v matter. Are matter and the physical the same thing? Is the human body matter/physical? I can’t seem to get the spititual straight in my head until I understand this matter/human/physical bit. It’s so frustrating.
Hi, Lou. Has anything in this post or the comments been helpful to you? Keep wrestling! Insight and understanding can come!
Hi Doug. Thank you for asking and yes I feel more comfirtable about it all now after all the comments and also Evan’s helpful reply. I love having SpiritView to turn to. It’s something I need to work on.
Such a wonderful message and stated so well. Thank you! It really puts the
Truth of our spiritual being in perspective and that is so very helpful. Trying
to see ourselves in this light brings such comfort. Much appreciated to you,
dear Evan, for such enlightenment in these messages and for the additional
confirmations by those who share their thoughts here or in gentle ways of
thinking that help the world.
Thank you, Evan, I’m finding its true that as my understanding of spiritual reality grows, my focus, concern about the material wanes. It’s an incremental gaining each day. Sometimes I take a step backward, but then move forward as I practice seeing the spiritual truth of life. moment by moment, day by day. And thank you J for the article.
Thank you, Evan! ♥️ You have so clearly explained the unreality of man as a physical being, and the complete and eternal reality of man as a spiritual being. In thinking about today’s blog, I was led to search “physicality” on JSH-online, and the attached article immediately appeared. I share it here with our SpiritView family. (CS Journal, August 1987, by Jules Cern)
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/ndilm64soq?s=copylink
Love this article. Thank you so much. And it really enhances what Evan was saying. So grateful.
Thank you for this excellent article, Cheryl!
Excellent article Cheryl, thank you for sharing it with us!
This article reminded me of two favorite quotes:
“Evil appears real to mortal sense only because the mortal sense of things is itself part of the deception.” (DeWitt John)
“Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place or thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.” (Mary Baker Eddy)
The Jules Cern article is one of the best I’ve ever read for explaining our existence. Thank you so much for providing the link. I have already shared it.
Evan, you mentioned that thinking of oneself as totally spiritual is an abstract notion to some people; as I read that I mentally made the comparison to learning mathematical concepts.
When teaching math to younger children teachers often have students use manipulatives so that they can prove to themselves, through a senses of discovery, that concepts are demonstrable. An abstract concept becomes true, law to the student. The student is then able to set aside their manipulatives and trust the law. Likewise, as we apply and demonstrate the laws of Spirit in living better lives, what at first seems abstract becomes concrete. This process is called practice. There is a reason a practioner holds that title!
Well folks, I have read that I live, move, and have my being in God; and learned from the Master that I must be about my Father’s business. I accept both. I emanate from God, not reflect Him
I deduce that I am ALREADY in God, therefore my business is to consciously realise or be aware of this infinite Truth, that I have never been apart from God, I am always one with God.
He is the provider of all and it is my duty to be His instrument, his servant, and no longer appeal to Him as if He should do something for me as if He were my servant, rather it is I that do for He. And that with what I do, originates with Him. I of myself can do no thing.
I stop wrestling with intellectual thought and attempt to overcome evil with good, or wrong with right, since there is only God, Omnipresent, no opposing force or power at all. Impossible.
I no longer affirm or deny, rest only in the awareness of Omniscient, Omnipresent Omnipotence.
Omni…One
The Jules Cern article was available only to those with a JSHonline.com subscription. Is there a way to read it without a subscription?
Hi Spiritviewer, the link that Cheryl provided below should open for those without a JSHonline subscription, as it shows =copylink, which means it’s “Shared”. However, to get an article that says “Shared” I’ve found lately that I have to cut and paste the link into another browser and then “Share” will show to the left of the article.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/ndilm64soq?s=copylink
Thank you, J, for trying, however the article was not readable past the first few sentences. I appreciate your help.
SpiritViewer, I’m so sorry the link didn’t open fully for you. J is right. If it reads “copylink” at the end of the link, it should be readable by anyone regardless of subscription. J is also right in that sometimes browsers are finicky and it helps to copy the link and open it in another browser. If that option didn’t work for you, again, I’m so sorry. I know of no other solutions. Unless maybe you can open it on a friend’s computer? That might work. Here is the link one more time.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/ndilm64soq?s=copylink
You’re welcome Spiritviewer. Another thought…you may want to try clearing your browser cache and cookies (do a clear history) and also powering your phone/laptop off, then turn back on again after a few minutes.
Thank you J and Cheryl, your links opened fully for me without a subscription. The bar across the top of the article says, “Enjoy this free content that was shared with you. You can explore more content with a free trial.”
Thank you Evan, especially enjoyed the line in the quote from Mrs. Eddy that ‘Our life is not at the mercy of matter.’ I find that empowering.
Are we mental pussycats?
JULES CERN
From the August 1987 issue of The Christian Science Journal
What is a pussycat? Is it just another synonym for cat? Or does it define a particular type of cat?
To understand what a pussycat is, it might help to know what a pussycat is not. If you’ve ever been a cat watcher, surely you have observed that there are some cats to whom each day is the Fourth of July. To them every day is Independence Day. None of that household petting for them! No matter which way they’re stroked, they don’t want any part of it. That is not a pussycat!
Then what is a pussycat? A pussycat is a cat that responds to anyone who beckons, “Here, kitty, kitty.” It will follow anything from a total stranger to a piece of string dragged across the floor. A pussycat will roll over and paw the air, trying to grab whatever is dangled before it. Anytime you hear about a cat being chased up a tree and having to be rescued by the fire department—more than likely that’s a pussycat. To summarize, a pussycat is a marshmallow with whiskers.
It might be helpful to ask ourselves if we are mental pussycats. Do we respond to every call that beckons, “Here, mortal, mortal”? Do we follow after the “strange gods” of material sense testimony? Do we mentally roll over and paw the air with compromise, whenever a string of suggestions that man and the universe are material is dangled before our thought? Do we let a sense of many minds chase us up a tree of fear and confusion?
Our beloved Leader, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, gives us this inspired statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “It is not wise to take a halting and half-way position or to expect to work equally with Spirit and matter, Truth and error. There is but one way—namely, God and His idea—which leads to spiritual being.”1 Nowhere in the teachings of Christian Science is there sanction for the belief that there is divine Mind and mortal mind, infinite Spirit and matter, perfect Life and imperfect life, or omnipresent Love and hatred.
Christian Science is not a mental play-thing. Nor is it demonstrated through mental pussyfooting. Complete demonstration of divine perfection means complete rejection of imperfection. Our Leader states it in these words in Science and Health: “You command the situation if you understand that mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the truth of being.”2 Christ Jesus proved this. He was the most loving individual ever known, but he was metaphysically ruthless with the suggestion that there is any mind but divine Mind, any life but perfect Life, or any existence but spiritual existence. He was gentle, encouraging, and an unequaled healer. Yet he was metaphysically tough. He didn’t compromise with evil. He was no mental pussycat.
The purpose of Christian Science is not to reveal what kind of mortal one is or what kind of a physical body one has, but to reveal what a perfect, spiritual, eternally harmonious idea of God one is—right now. Christian Science is not here to condemn people for their sins, but to liberate individual thought from sin and the belief that man has ever been a sinful mortal. The account of Adam and Eve is only an allegory, not a history, not a biography. Man has no material history. He has lived forever as God’s all-spiritual image, and always will. And “man” means you, everyone—our true being. It does not mean a physical body, which is not you or anyone.
This explanation of man made in the image of God, Spirit, does not eliminate identity; it illuminates it. Physicality is an impossible image of infinite Spirit. Diseased physicality is an impossible image of God, perfect Life. If it is impossible to God, it can’t pass itself off as man. This does not ignore what seems to be the human need. It resolves the human need, as turning on a light solves the problem of darkness.
Mrs. Eddy writes in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: “Spirit is infinite; therefore Spirit is all. ‘There is no matter’ is not only the axiom of true Christian Science, but it is the only basis upon which this Science can be demonstrated.”3 In these few words Mrs. Eddy has given us a clear statement of the revelation of Christian Science and its unlimited application.
Once, when I was a new student of Christian Science, I was unemployed and had had nothing to eat all day. I was sitting at a table in my rented room, pondering the writings of Mrs. Eddy. The door to my room was wide-open. And as I proceeded with the studying, one of the other occupants of the rooming house walked past my open door. Without a pause in his stride, and without speaking a word, as he passed he tossed a chocolate bar onto my table. And I didn’t even know him very well.
Reflecting on this experience, I’m convinced that manna from heaven is never out of date. When we realize that the Bible and our Leader’s writings constitute all the manna we’ll ever need, we’ll never be tempted to doubt their unceasing ability to meet every human need. Thinking of the need does not meet the need. It may only magnify the need. But opening thought to God, divine Principle, and to the truth of all being, can never be linked with limitation.
All that is true about God heals all that is untrue about mankind. Why? Because matter, mortal mind, physicality, disease—any mortal condition—are not realities, not substantial. We are only contending with false belief, a totally mental misconception that there is some phase of mortality. The only thing that can eliminate a false belief, or a mental misconception, is the truth. This is emphasized in the words of Christ Jesus: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”4 Free from what? Free from the belief that there is anything but Truth and its expression; anything but the allness of perfect Life, God.
It is never man who needs healing. It is never identity that needs improvement. It is only the false, limited, mental misconception of man that needs healing and improvement.
So what appears to be the healing of physicality or the harmonizing of mortality is simply the yielding of false beliefs to divine reality. It is the yielding of mental darkness to the light of Truth. It is the effect of knowing the divine Truth—not the “truth” about mortal conditions but the divine Truth that exists as All, instead of mortal conditions. The belief that man originates as a physical being is the foundation of the belief that he degenerates as a physical being. This is the Adam and Eve concept of identity. But Adam and Eve are simply stage names for mortal mind and matter. With those two you have the world’s foremost mental pussycats: two adults who could be misguided by a piece of fruit and the sales pitch of a snake.
Aren’t we grateful that regardless of how we update Adam and Eve, they are still no more than an allegory, only a symbol of the illusion that there is mortal mind and matter? Basically, Christian Science is not a process of liberating man, who is already free as God’s expression. It is the Science of liberating thought from a false, limited concept of man.
Christian Science does not eliminate man. It illuminates man. Then, what is it that needs healing? It is false belief that needs healing—the thought that there is matter, the thought that there is physicality, the thought that there is disease, the thought that there is something or someone unlike God.
Science and Health tells us, “There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously.”5 Thought never exists in physicality. Physicality exists only in mortal thought. This basic, erroneous thought Mrs. Eddy exposes as animal magnetism. She calls it “the name of all evil.”6 Evil is never anything that is. It is not just a belief that mortality is bad, discordant, or sick. It is the belief that there is any mortality, good or bad, harmonious or discordant, sick or well. We are all happy to relinquish a belief in bad matter, but we’re not so eager to relinquish a belief in so-called “good” matter.
Haven’t we sometimes felt that it is too difficult to let go of all mortal beliefs? Haven’t we wanted to select just which false beliefs we are willing to relinquish?
We need a broad and uncompromising acceptance of the allness of perfect Life, a more humble and sweeping acknowledgment of the one and only Mind, God. If we continue to cling to a physical, corporeal person as being man’s identity, then “man,” to us, is nothing more than a false belief. It is impossible to heal a false belief with a false belief.
The truth that man is spiritual and perfect is all that can heal the false belief that he is physical and imperfect. Why? Because we are never actually dealing with matter, physicality, or mortal mind as realities. We seem to be contending with a thought that there is matter, physicality, or mortal mind. Only Truth can dispel a false thought.
Christian Science is not something Mrs. Eddy conceived. It is the divine Science of being, which Mrs. Eddy perceived. If we refuse to be impressed with the belief that there is good corporeality, we can’t be depressed by the belief that there is bad corporeality. Healing is not a process of liberating matter from matter. It is the liberation of thought from the false belief that there is matter. Thought is never in matter. Matter only exists in thought. It is only thought to be.
The demonstration of divine Truth is not primarily making matter better, but demonstrating that Spirit is All. Perfect Life is not something to look forward to but is God, with whom man always dwells.
Christian Science is the Science of being. It is the Science of what is. It is the Science of reflecting good. Because God is All, man reflects all that is truly good.
I could continue, but I have to put the cat out—in fact we each can put out the mental pussycat that would obscure our real spiritual oneness with God.
1 Science and Health, p. 1 67.↑
2 Ibid., p. 403.↑
3 Miscellany, p. 357.↑
4 John 8:32.↑
5 Science and Health, p. 282.↑
6 See Miscellany 357:8-10.↑
Wow, Shelley! You posted the entire article! You are amazing. I hope Spiritviewer sees this! Thank you!
Amen! Thanks, both of you, and Evan!
thank you very much, Shelly. I really appreciate you doing this.
I will try cleaning out my phone.
You are welcome Spiritviewer, glad you saw it.
Meow, I am not a pussycat!
A good friend, not a Christian scientist told me years ago
We are coming back and coming back on earth until we totally understand God. After that we are One in spirit with God in eternity .
Is it some logic in that statement?
Thank you for your feed back!
Thank yoy Evan Fir your very inspiring approach
And all for your honest remarks
What a wonderful and enlightening discussion today. Thank you, Evan, this is the clearest view of losing the material sense I have ever encountered. I also appreciate the questions as I have them myself but I do feel quite a leap in my understanding.
Thank you, Evan and Spiritview family. I’m grateful for you every day.
This subject comes up everyday for those studying C.S. and seems very normal to wrestle with. The synonyms of God Love, Life, Soul, Mind, Spirit, Truth, Principle are not material things but not so hard to comprehend. The more I think about these synonyms the more I understand spiritual existence and my part in it. I try not to be hard on myself for not comprehending all of C.S. right now, I haven’t ascended yet, but I am listening for Mind’s direction more often and that helps me grow in understanding.
Thanks very much for this, Evan. Beautifully and consistently insightful, inspiring, and instructive!
Great comments also! Quite a community here!!
Thank you!
You really summed it all up!
Kind of like the SS of B.
The truth of who we are now!