Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture

Chapter - Infinite Individual Consciousness

Every individual in the world has within his own consciousness every invention, every art that was ever known. We are the embodiment of every law in the universe. Through a process that we call learning we seem to be taking in a little metaphysics today, a little music tomorrow, while the truth is they are already a part of our consciousness, and our awareness of them is only unfolding by degrees. There are people who are able to grasp these things without going through the usual process. This is cosmic consciousness. This explains child prodigies. These people are universal Mind without any obstruction.

The closer we get to the realization of this universal Consciousness, the more infinitude becomes apparent. Truth is not added to your consciousness -- it comes through unfoldment. Our so-called human consciousness is a shutter. At one point, it admits very little light; opened a little more, it admits more light, and as we become more and more spiritually minded, the shutter opens wider and wider, until eventually all humanhood disappears. The full light then shines through.

We cannot increase our consciousness, it is infinite already, but we can become aware of its infinite nature. You cannot add to yourself; you cannot even become more spiritual or more wise, but only more aware of the infinity of your own spiritual consciousness, in proportion as you realize that God is the Mind, substance and Spirit of you.

We may come to the study of metaphysics or the Bible to gain better health; or we may come to the search for God to increase our wealth or business activity, but in the last analysis that is not what is going to happen to us. True, this increased sense of spiritual good will produce better humanhood, increase our ease in matter, and even prolong our human sense of existence a few years, but this is not the object of our study. The object of our search for Truth is to gain a spiritual sense of existence that we may live perfectly and eternally.

We may suddenly find that the particular disease or discord or lack has disappeared, but this is of value only if it serves as a steppingstone to the real demonstration of spiritual existence. If it does not lead to this, at best it can only be a case of exchanging a bad piece of body for a good piece of body. The average student of metaphysics is satisfied to stop right there and let life become just one round of demonstrations, or attempted ones. Truth becomes just a new form of medicine to him. The effect is just the same as calling a doctor to administer a pill and the real error is not handled. Truth is not supposed to heal me, but to reveal to me the spiritual nature of my being so that I do not need a constant round of treatments.

We also turn to the study of the Bible to experience that better sense of companionship in a friend, husband, wife or child.

The purpose of our study then is, first, the improvement of our humanhood -- the improvement in our human existence, in health, wealth, harmony, companionship -- but, let us not stop there.

In seven thousand years of recorded history, we have never had peace in the world and this in spite of all the thousands of religions that are on the earth. All of these have failed to bring about the condition of peace -- and for one reason: they have failed to emphasize the oneness of the individual and God. When we realize this oneness we realize this is the true relationship in the world. There is no longer any need for war. In the realization of oneness, we demonstrate the impossibility of racial or religious prejudice or the envying of anyone's possessions. This knowledge is useable; these things are absolutely demonstrable laws of the Bible, laws of Being and will wipe out bigotry, desire for another's possessions, prejudice. It is impossible to hate or fear anyone after the attainment of the realization of oneness. After the moment of realization we do not need churches, books or ministers. Spiritualized man is the only thing we need to realize.

Life is self-sustained. What life? The only life we have -- your Life, my Life. It has no need for anyone to give it a lift. This great vision will come to us only when we transcend humanhood and begin to live the divinity of our Being.

John said, "Now are we the sons of God." Here again is a difference in our study of the Bible and what is often believed to be accomplished in reading the Bible. It does not matter whether John said it or not. If, however we see in this that the truth of being is being revealed to us and we accept it, then the statement, instead of being a quotation from the Bible, becomes a law unto our being. Quotations from the Bible are meaningless while they are in the realm of quotations, but when we accept them as laws, then they become laws unto our demonstration. "Ye are the light of the world." Accepted, this statement becomes a law unto our demonstration.

From the earliest Bible readings, mention is made of the "coming of the Messiah." This promise taken literally is meaningless; it can do nothing for us. Later the Bible records the coming of the Messiah, fulfilling the belief Messiah that the prophecy meant the coming of a man. If we are very honest though, we will admit that of itself that has not done anything for us. The only value of the prophecy of the coming of the Christ will be when it is understood to be the coming of the Christ in your consciousness and in my consciousness, and we must awaken to the realization that we are that spiritual man -- the Son of God -- the Messiah -- the one called Peace, Mighty Counselor.

If the historical sense of the Bible is literally true, all of the years prior to the advent of Jesus, during the time when the Messiah was promised, would have been years of absolute darkness -- without a Savior of any kind. Then we find the record of the man Jesus, and he was recorded as the promised Messiah. If this record is literally true, that the coming of the Messiah, or Saviour, is the coming of a man to earth, then there has been no Savior on the earth since 33 A.D. In other words, the whole history of the world, according to literal interpretation of the Bible, shows only three years during which God had a Saviour on earth.

If we now accept the later revelation of the Christ, that we are the Sons of God and "Before Abraham was, I am," then we find there has always been a Saviour in the world. Therefore, these promises can have no bearing on the facts, and these statements must have some other vital significance. The literal promise of the Old Testament is that there will be a Messiah, or Saviour, and when literally taken, the Gospels of the New Testament present the coming of a man in fulfillment of the old prophecy. This Saviour is on earth for a few brief years and again leaves the world with only a promise of a future Saviour -- the Second Coming.

Spiritually interpreted, the record in the New Testament of the birth of the Christ, is the birth in our individual consciousness wherever and whenever it occurs. The birth in the manger signifies that it takes place at a time and place of spiritual poverty -- the human thought -- and it is thus the Christ comes to us.

The coming of Christ is the coming of perfection in you and in me -- not the coming of a man who would be perfect. We are born as humans, seemingly, and we grow up as humans. Through study we do develop some degree of Christ Consciousness, but we learn that that is not enough. We have to develop this Consciousness to a greater degree: attending church, reading the Bible or metaphysical writings, and to the degree that we have utilized these helps, we are making progress or we have slipped up.

We should utilize as much as possible the line of thought laid down for morning work in the Chapter, "Meditation" in The Infinite Way. The purpose of this is the realization of our oneness with God. In this manner we cultivate the spiritual senses and awaken consciousness to divine Reality.

It is only the belief that we are human beings that is separating us from our good at this very moment. The only antidote for it is the truth that "I and the Father are one." But just reciting this statement will do no good. Statements of truth are what you read in books and hear from men, but Truth itself is what you discern between the lines. Any affirmation can only be a statement about Truth, not a truth itself. However, it can serve to keep you in line with the infinite until consciousness responds and opens up. Therefore, it should be our conscious work to realize our oneness with God and with every spiritual idea. This does not mean with every human being in the world, but literally with the idea of happiness, prosperity, friendliness, health. When we realize our oneness with these qualities, we demonstrate them. This realization not only enables us to express these qualities to others, but compels others to express them to us.

The Bible should never be considered personal, not even when it uses names of people, places, cities, or rivers, but significant of spiritual qualities, spiritual activities. The Hebrews are still prophesying the coming of Christ; they are still in trouble because they are acknowledging within their own being their lack of spiritual help -- putting it off in the future. Many Christians also are awaiting the second coming of Christ, and they too are putting off their hope of salvation to some future time. This is fatal to demonstration.

Supposing for some reason we found ourselves out in the street, all property, possessions etc. gone; we have nothing behind us to turn to; we are entirely alone. Is God any less God at that moment than the moment before when we thought we had so much? This is a point we must understand. What is this Christ? Your Consciousness -- the infinite, divine spiritual Consciousness which is your individual consciousness when its sense of a power apart from God has been overcome. So then, if you sat perfectly still without a thought except "Thank you Father, there I am" and "Where I am, God is" -- not two, but one -- you would soon find yourself in a very short period of adjustment, on the very same level of supply and health that you before the loss. As your consciousness unfolds, it will maintain and support you on the same level which you have already attained.

In the human thought there are states and stages of consciousness and when the personal I, or ego, is paramount, we are mostly in the getting end of life -- achieving, accomplishing, acquiring -- all our life is directed towards coming in to us - while the highest state of humanhood is marked by the concern for helping, teaching, co-operating then life is flowing out from us, and we are more concerned with helping and sharing than we are with getting. In the spiritual life, we go higher that that -- we are the Light of the world -- and we are no longer concerned about who comes into our orbit, how many, or if there are none at all. Our concern then is really being the Light of the world -- showing forth the greater harmony of spiritual existence and allowing that harmony and perfection in us to attract those who are seeking something better than they already have.

God has no favorites; therefore, a spiritual sense is not concerned with helping and teaching the other fellow. It stands, rather, like the lighthouse, waiting for the other fellow to awaken himself to his own identity. I am only a Light of the world in proportion as I realize that there is no darkness in the world, and any appearance to the contrary is illusion. This is where our metaphysical work begins. We must live in the consciousness that we as individuals are the Light of the world, and because we do not come down from that point, that high estate, those not yet awakened to their true identity find, through their contact with us, that they, too are the Light of the world.

The consciousness of the individual is the Saviour, and when we arrive at that understanding, we realize that there is no need for recognition or reward. The promise of the coming of the Christ is the promise of the coming to our individual awareness of the Christ that is already within -- that was there before Abraham -- that will be there until the end of the human sense of the world -- until there is no longer need for this great Light to be sifted down through a shutter.

The amount of daily work done in meditation determines the amount of unfoldment, and that, in turn, determines the amount of outer demonstration.

You will never get rid of your body, but you will get rid of the false, material, sense of your body. Jesus' sense of body changed after the crucifixion, otherwise it was the same body.

Life should become an adventure -- not a Social Security number.



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