Читать книгу The Spiritual Writings Of Annie Rix Militz - Annie Rix Militz - Страница 6

HE first lesson the student of Truth must learn is summed up in the answer of Jesus Christ to the scribe who asked him what was the first commandment, or rule, for right living:

"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 neighbor as thyself. " Mark 12:29-31.

God must be loved with the whole nature, and this is only possible as we know that God is all that really is. God is the One Good, everywhere present. God is the One Spirit, the One Mind in everybody. God is the One Substance in the universe. God is the One Life, Health, Love, Truth, Substance, and Intelligence.

God is the only Self in us and in our neighbor. Therefore the second commandment is just the same as the first, for if we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, what love have we left for ourselves or our neighbor unless the real Self in us be God?

There is only God. There is no reality in anything that is not God.

It is written, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This is true, and as we look about us and see the human race so in bondage to evil we have but one conclusion in our minds it must be that they do not know the Truth. Some seem free from one thing but are in bondage to another; others are almost entirely free, yet something still limits and binds, and in the case of these we must conclude that they have received but part of the Truth, or have been contented with a mixture of Truth and error, for when once they know the whole Truth, and practice it, they must be wholly free. Part-truths heal us only in part.

Why is it that men who are preaching what they believe to be the Truth are sick and poor, weak and full of sorrow and trouble?

This is the reason: While they declare God to be good and to be omnipotent, in the same breath they begin to talk of another power called evil, the devil, as very strong and powerful, which is continually warring against God, and most of the time prevailing.

At the same time that men have said God is omnipresent, everywhere present, they talk of another being, exactly opposite to God, the Good, as a real presence, and even ascribe to it the All-presence that belongs to God. Thus they break their first commandment : "Thou shalt have no other gods [powers] before me."

To give evil even the smallest presence is to put it in the place where God should be yes, where God really is. They should know the omnipresence of the Good only, and acknowledge that in order to be free from the evil in which they have so long been believing.

Gautama Buddha, the great Eastern sage, after days of prayer and fasting, desiring above all things to know why his people suffered so, received this word from the Divine Spirit : "The reason of suffering is ignorance. Teach the people the truth, and they shall be free." It is ignorance of God that we must rise out of in order to be set free from those ills that are the results of it. And this ignorance is expressed by the people as a belief in the universal presence of evil. From this error every mind must be set free by being imbued with the idea of the universal presence of God.

Is it reasonable to say that God is good and all-powerful, and then say that evil has any power at all ? Is it reasonable to believe in the omnipresence of God and at the same time think the devil has any real presence? Come, let God in you speak to you the whole Truth!

Since God is the Good and God is everywhere, Good must be everywhere, and there is no real presence to evil at all. Since God is all and He is the one creator, He must create all out of His own substance, which is Good. God creates Good only. "And God saw that it was good."

"And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1:31. Good is all that really is made. There is, in reality, no place for evil in God's universe. Evil has no real presence, or power, or law, and all that can be classed under the head of evils are delusions and unrealities, and should be recognized as only such.

Sin, sickness, sorrow, death, have no place in the omnipresence of God.

God does not think impure, unholy thoughts, therefore sinful desires, words, and deeds have no part or place in the true Self. There is no reality in sin; it is without power, law, or substance.

God is omnipresent Health. There is no pain, no sickness, no disease in God. There is nothing in God to be sick or out of which to make disease, therefore He does not make pain, sickness or disease. There is no reality in disease.

God is immortal, changeless Life, omnipresent Life. Life does not end. There is no reality in death. Absence of life is an appearance, and no one ever really dies. Death has no real place or power in God's world.

God is Spirit pure, holy, unlimited, eternal, perfect Substance. Since God is all, His creation must be in and of Himself, in and of His substance, therefore the world of God must be Spiritual and not material. Matter is not the real substance of the universe, for the qualities of matter change, decay, limitation, mortality, and imperfection have no place in divine manifestation. Materiality is negation.

All the beauty, grandeur, life, and goodness of creation are Spiritual, not material, and therefore they are eternal to the mind that truly knows and to the eyes that really see.

Not only must we believe in the omnipresence and omnipotence of God, but we must carry that belief to its ultimate extent, which is to believe that there can be no reality in any other presence or power. We cannot allow the claim of any presence other than Good and Spirit to take hold upon our minds in order to be loyal to the greatest command of all : 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind." "In all thy ways acknowledge him." Prov. 3 :6. "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else." Is. 45 :22.

The Greek philosopher Zeno says: "The most necessary part of learning is to unlearn our errors." The mind that comes up to the fountain of Truth to partake of its blessings must first be placed in a receptive condition, must first be cleansed of its belief in the reality of evil and materiality, in order that it may receive the full Truth, and this cleansing process is accomplished by the word of negation.

Every negative word erases, and to erase false thoughts from the mind the word of denial must be spoken.

In the first chapter of Genesis the mind that awaits the coming of Truth is spoken of in the language of symbolism as the earth, without form and void "and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Darkness is the symbol of ignorance, and light is the symbol of Truth. "And God said [to the waiting mind], Let there be light [Truth] : and there was light."

Denial makes us receptive. "And God said. Let there be" as though the earth must let the light shine. And so it is. The mind must let the Truth come in. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," by beginning to clear out the rubbish of false thinking pulling up the "plants which my Father hath not planted."

People who have sick bodies, or vices, or inharmonious surroundings are like pupils who have worked their problems incorrectly, and before they begin to work them aright they must first erase their old work, then begin the working anew with true principles for their bases of operations.

Right denial pulls down old, false structures built by vain imaginings, and leaves the mind ready to build anew.

Every religion has taught denial in some form. All fasting is but the symbol of the denying which is going on in mind. Sacrifices represent the putting away, or the denying of the power of "the world, the flesh, and the devil " Fanatics have cut and lacerated their bodies, and sat in sack, cloth and ashes, to signify their realization of the vanity or unreality of the earthly body and worldly life. In truth, the real denial was all the time in mind, and no external ceremony could make them realize the nothingness of the worldly life and ways if they were not trying in all sincerity to realize it in heart and mind. We see this proven by people going through long fasts and other external forms of denial, and yet not realizing any more spirituality after them than before. All real denial begins in the heart and mind.

The process of denial is represented in the Scriptures by John the Baptist, who, it was prophesied, must come first in order to prepare the way of the Lord, the full Gospel.

"Repent ye! Repent ye!" was John's cry. The literal translation of the Greek metamoia (mistranslated "repent ye") is "Change your mind." In other words, stop thinking about sin, and so stop the doing and speaking it. Change your mind as to what are the realities of life, and seek the things of the Spirit. "Except ye become converted [turned right about] and become as little children [who know no evil] ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself." How is it that Jesus denied himself? By beginning in heart and mind to set aside the fleshly man. He says, "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing;" "I speak not of myself, it is the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." He denied his personality, for he knew that that was not the real Self. He knew Himself to be Spirit, not flesh. "The flesh profiteth nothing," he said. He knew himself to be Immortal, not mortal as he seemed to be. He said, "Judge not by the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." We, too, are Spiritual, not material; divine Immortals, not carnal and mortal. We deny the reality of the carnal mind and body under the name "personality." It is a good term to express all the collective errors that man has held about himself. The word "person" (from the Latin per and sona, to sound through) was originally applied to a mask which ancient actors wore upon the stage. Most personalities seem to hide the real nature of the individual beautiful natures obscured by ugly forms and features, great souls curtained by diminutive bodies. Denial of personality draws aside the curtain, dissolves the imperfect, and reveals the translucent body through which the Spirit shines and works untrammeled.

The fleshly body is not yourself, and nothing done to it can hurt you. Mentally look at all personality as you would look through darkness to the light. Deny its actions, its foolishness, its sickness, its weakness, its meanness, its wickedness, and these will melt before your true word like mist before the sun.

To remember to meet every evil claim, suggestion or appearance with the silent assertion, "There is no evil" is to be a light in the midst of darkness, causing the evil to fly and the real good that was there all the time to come forward in all its strength and power.

You are like one who continually says to false report, "That is not so," and it cannot influence you because you will not believe in it. All evil is a lie, a delusion, and it has power to those only who believe in it. Thus Jesus defines evil and its author : "He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar and the father of it." No matter how true a statement may seem to be, if it is not true of God, then it must be known as a relative truth or a lie, and we are not to be deceived by it. One way to lift the mind from believing in evil is to look at the falsities squarely and fearlessly, and say: "You are not real, you are not true. It is nothing. It has no real and true creator, and I will not believe in it any longer." But the most terse, effective, even drastic, denial that one can speak is embodied in those words, "There is no evil."

If you believe the mirage on the desert is a reality, a real lake of waters surrounded by trees, then you will pursue it as long as you are deceived, and endure many sufferings and hardships through your ignorance. But the traveler who knows it to be nothing, says so, and cannot be deluded into following it nor led out of his way, no matter how fair it may be to look upon. So should we regard all evil and all this dream-world which passes away continually, and which all prophets have pronounced 'Vanity of vanities," and "its nations as nothing in the eyes of the Lord."

"But can I not believe my senses ?" the mortal cries. Surely not, since the senses are continually contradicting each other, as has been proven both by experiments and natural experiences. Even material science contradicts the senses. For example, the sun seems to rise and set, but astronomy tells us that that is but an appearance, and it is the earth that moves and not the sun. The senses say the moon is a flat disc, astronomy declares it to be a sphere ; the stars seem points of light, whereas it is said that some are suns many thousand times greater than our sun.

We are not now looking to our senses for Truth, but to the divine Reason within us, and to our Intuition, "that light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

When thy senses affirm that which thy reason denies, reject the testimony of thy senses, and listen only to thy reason. Maimonides.

The mind that is determined to believe in God alone faithfully takes up the denial of all that is not God, and, as he walks along the Way, he soon begins to see that Truth proves itself true. What of is the result of persistently holding, right in the face of appearances, to the thought, "There is no reality to sin; no real power, presence, or law to sin?"

It is to see vice and impure thinking drop right out of your own mind and life, and not only yours, but out of those for whom you speak the words. Does the denial of the reality of sin cause license, making people more sinful and wicked? Not at all. On the contrary it causes them to see that there is no pleasure in it, that there is no satisfaction in it, and a great realization of the uselessness and powerlessness of sin comes to the faithful student. For the saying is true, and Truth, boldly spoken though in silence, is a living power in itself capable of freeing from every bondage even of sin itself.

When the mind that dwells in the consciousness of God sends forth its word denying any place or power to sickness, pain, disease, then we see health spring forth as flowers spring up when a crushing weight has been removed.

The right denial of personality causes egotism to fall from one with its pride and vanity, its sensitiveness and stupidity, and the universal Self to be revealed.

He who holds to the thought, "There is no real substance to matter, the Spirit is the only true substance," finds himself no longer burdened and limited by material things. His body seems light, the things of the world do not tire him. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary ; and they shall walk, and not faint." Is. 40:31.

The effect of right words of denial is like water, for they cleanse, loosen, free, wash away, and dissolve false appearances. The effect of right affirmations is to fill in (fulfill), to make substantial, to build up, to establish, and cause to come into appearance that which is real and true.

The realization of true denial in thought, word, and deed is called being "born of water," and the realization of true affirmation is being "born of Spirit" This is the beginning of regeneration. He that is continually being cleansed by the word of denial "Now are ye clean through the words which I have spoken unto you" is being baptized with water. Water is the symbol of the cleansing power of repentance, change of mind, conversion, all of which come through the right denial of the world, the flesh, and the devil, or, as we have said, materiality (the world), the personal self (the flesh), and evil (the devil).

To every suggestion of evil in your daily life mentally declare, "There is no evil." To all talk of people about evil, such as scandals, descriptions of diseases, accounts of deaths, disasters, fears, discouragements and dangers, silently say, "That is not true." Many cases have been healed by that simple, silent message.

Do not feel obliged to join in conversations that dwell upon the dark side of humanity. Courtesy and good judgment will cause you to reply in ways wherein there is no offense, and yet you make no concession to evil. Silence is better than assent to error. Learn the virtue of stillness.

Copy and learn the following 1 denials, and repeat them night and morning in conjunction with the affirmations at the close of the preceding lesson :

1 Since in God there is no evil, I deny that there is any reality to evil at all.

There is no real power in sin or death.

There is no real substance to sickness or disease.

There is no true cause for sorrow.

There is nothing to fear.

2 God's world is Spiritual, not material. There is no matter, Spirit is the only substance.

3 Personality is not the real Self. The true Individual is Spirit, not flesh.

I am the free and fearless, impersonal, selfless child of God, and what I am so are you, my neighbor, as myself. Amen.

One of the happiest ways of denying for one's self is to begin your sentences with, "I am free," such as "I am free from doubt," "I am free from care," and so forth.

The denial of your personality does not destroy your Individuality, but, to the contrary, establishes it. Fear not; "He that loseth his life [loses the limited personal conception of life] for my sake [the Truth's sake] shall find it [the true Individual life]." Matt. 10:39.