Key Takeaways
1. True Power Resides Within
The great Power necessary to dispel the erroneous conditions which surround us, must be sought within ourselves – and we are shown how it may be accomplished.
Inner spiritual power. We often seek relief from fears, anxieties, and dangers in the material world, believing that external forces or human will hold great power. However, this is an illusion. The profound truth is that a spiritual power exists within our own being, capable of dispelling all external discord.
Peace from within. This internal spiritual power, a "Peace, be still," resides within our consciousness. It can calm every storm in our experience, heal diseases, and elevate us above the strife and weariness of human existence. Our role is simply to recognize its presence and allow it to fulfill its mission.
Universal and accessible. This universal power of Truth, Life, and Love is available to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation or philosophy. It abides at the center of every individual, saint or sinner, awaiting only our recognition. This awareness alone is sufficient faith to move mountains of discord.
2. Transcending Material Illusion
Our world is not an erroneous one, but rather that the universe in which we live is the realm of reality about which man entertains a false concept.
Correcting false concepts. The fundamental error throughout history has been the belief in two separate worlds: a spiritual heaven and a material, mortal existence. Instead, our world is the "Word made flesh," Spirit made visible, or Consciousness expressed as idea. The task is not to change a material universe, but to correct our finite concept of existence.
Beyond human betterment. Early in our spiritual journey, we may focus on using truth to overcome discords and heal diseases. However, a deeper revelation shows that we do not add immortal harmony to human conditions; rather, mortality disappears as we "put on immortality." God neither creates nor controls material affairs.
Spiritual discernment. The "natural [human] man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." We must transcend the desire to merely improve our humanhood to glimpse the meaning of "I have overcome the world," which applies to both the pains and pleasures of the world.
3. Cultivating Spiritual Consciousness
Only as we transcend the desire to improve our humanhood do we understand this vital statement.
Shifting focus. Spiritual consciousness is cultivated by devoting thought to the things of the Spirit, rather than striving to improve human affairs like health, sensory pleasures, or worldly gain. This shift in attention allows us to reject worldly thoughts and pursue the spiritual kingdom.
Higher level of life. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." This does not lead to an ascetic life, but to a higher level of joy, companionship, and success, safe from chance, change, or loss. Spiritual sense reveals the true value of the human scene.
Feeling, not reasoning. Spiritual wisdom is not understood through human intellect or reasoning. It is spiritually discerned, received through an intuitive faculty that acts through feeling. We become receptive hearers of the Word, attuned to Spirit, feeling the divine harmony of being and the actual presence of God.
4. The Christ: Inner Activity of Truth
The activity of Truth in individual consciousness is the only Christ.
Impersonal Christ. Spiritual illumination does not come from a person, but from the impersonal Christ, the universal Truth, the illumined consciousness of your Self. Worshiping Jesus led many to miss apprehending the omnipresent Christ within their own consciousness.
Dispelling personal sense. Illumined consciousness dispels the personal sense of self—with its problems, ills, age, and failures—revealing the real Self: unlimited, unfettered, untroubled, harmonious, and free. This Selfhood is revealed by retiring within to "listen" and watch.
Transformative presence. When consciousness is "afire with Truth and Love," it destroys fear, doubt, hate, envy, disease, and discord. This pure consciousness is felt by all, lightening their burdens. It is impossible to be "the light of the world" without dispelling the darkness of those around us.
5. Prayer as Conscious Union
Prayer is a state of consciousness in which we experience the realization of harmony, perfection, oneness, joy, peace, and dominion.
Beyond supplication. True prayer is not asking God to do something, send something, or heal. It is not a process of words or affirmations, but a state of consciousness. Any belief that what we seek is outside us creates a barrier to harmony.
Inherent good. "The kingdom of God is within you," and all good must be sought there. God is the reality, substance, life, mind, and body of our being. Therefore, we are eternal, harmonious, pure, and immortal. True prayer is the constant recognition of this truth: all good already is, and is forever manifested within us.
Communion, not petition. Emerson wisely stated, "Prayer that craves a particular commodity, anything less than all good, is vicious." True prayer is "the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view," a "soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul." It is conscious oneness with God, a listening for the "still small voice," where truth and love are imparted from God within.
6. Supply Flows from Inner Law
The universal or divine Consciousness, your individual consciousness, is this law.
Money is not supply. Money, food, clothing, and homes are not supply themselves, but the effects of supply. Just as an orange tree's supply is the law operating within it, not the oranges themselves, our true supply is the law of life operating within us.
Consciousness as law. Our individual consciousness is the universal or divine Consciousness, and this consciousness is the law of supply unto us. It produces its own image and likeness in the form of things necessary for our well-being. Since consciousness is limitless, so is our supply in all its forms.
Trusting the inner source. We need not take anxious thought for material things. The law acting within our consciousness is always at work, providing "all those added things." We learn to enjoy the bounties of nature and the fruitage of our inner storehouse without fear of lack, knowing the inner supply appears as necessary outer things.
7. Accessing Soul-Power Through Meditation
To receive the grace of God, we must retire from the world of sense, we must learn to silence the material senses and have audience with God.
Discovering the Soul. The Soul is the deepest, often unrealized, part of man. In moments of deep sorrow or profound turning within, individuals break through material sense to discover the Soul, finding new values, resources, and a different strength.
Soul-powers in action. The faculties of the Soul, when touched, emerge to bring inspiration, beauty, peace, joy, and harmony to every moment of existence. These Soul-forces act upon the human body for health, protect daily life, and are the source of infinite supply, operating on a higher level of consciousness but evident in human affairs.
Meditation as the door. Meditation is the door to the realm of the Soul. By taking time daily to sit quietly, turning thought to God, and contemplating Spirit, we develop receptivity. This "listening" to the "still small voice" fills us with divine energies, illumines us with the light of the Soul, and refreshes us with spiritual food.
8. Non-Resistance to Unreality
Error is not real – there is no matter, since the substance of matter is really mind.
Illusion of error. The greatest revelation is that there is no reality to error. What appears as sin, sickness, poverty, or discord is merely illusion, a misinterpretation of mind. God "saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Therefore, error cannot truly exist.
Spiritual translation. Spiritual consciousness does not overcome or destroy matter or material conditions, but knows that no such conditions exist as finite sense presents them. It translates the appearance, revealing the true nature of what is appearing. The "snake" of disease or discord is merely a state of mind, with no external reality.
Constant awareness. Spiritual illumination is attained by living constantly in the consciousness of perfection, continually translating visible pictures into reality. Every daily incident offers an opportunity to use our spiritual understanding, expanding consciousness until translation becomes a habitual, effortless awareness of Truth.
9. Embracing Our Divine Identity
As we put off the personal ego and attain the consciousness of our real Self – the Reality of us, divine Consciousness – we attain immortality.
Beyond human qualities. We must move beyond the belief that we express God or God-qualities. Instead, God, Consciousness, is forever expressing Itself and Its qualities as us. Our task is to relax and let our Soul express itself, witnessing this divine activity.
Completeness within. Concern for personal welfare builds on sand; a life devoted to Truth is a rock foundation. As we find less of self, we make room for the revelation of our divine Self, discovering our completeness and the infinity of our being. This realization brings forth patience and forbearance for those still struggling in mortal consciousness.
God appearing as us. We are that place where God becomes visible, the "Word made flesh." Our Source and substance is God—infinite divine Being. We are God-being, God-appearing, God-manifesting. This is the true glory of our being, and the recognition of this fact brings untold peace and joy.
10. Living by Grace: Taking No Thought
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Release from anxiety. The core teaching for supply and well-being is to "take no thought" for material needs. This is possible because "it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom," and He "knoweth that ye have need of these things."
Beyond human averages. Human existence often operates under "laws of averages" for success, health, or accidents. To live scientifically, we must rise above these mesmeric suggestions by realizing our true identity as Law, as Principle. Nothing external can be a law unto us; we are the law unto our own affairs.
Conscious union. Our conscious union with God enables us to live without taking thought, in complete abundance by Grace. We are not here to get from one another, but to share spiritual treasures. All that anyone possesses is the outpouring of their own infinite consciousness, making envy impossible and fostering a brotherhood of Love.
11. The New Horizon: Beyond All Appearances
It must be understood that there is no more reality to harmonious human existence than to discordant world conditions.
The dream of human existence. The sense that presents discord, disease, and death is a universal mesmerism, creating the entire dream of human existence. Both harmonious and inharmonious human conditions are merely mesmeric suggestions, dream pictures lacking reality or permanence.
Willingness to transcend. We must be willing for both the good and evil conditions of mortal existence to disappear from our experience. This willingness allows reality to be known, enjoyed, and lived. Above this sense-life lies a universe of Spirit, governed by Love, where substance is eternal Consciousness, free from discord or temporary material good.
First glimpse of Reality. The initial glimpse of the Soul-realm comes with the realization that all temporal conditions are products of self-hypnotism. This understanding, that the entire human scene is illusion, opens the door to the world of God's creation, a permanent and real existence.
Last updated:
Similar Books
