A student beautifully likened the illusory corporeal senses of the mind as “the rippling waves of a lake”. As we opened our eyes from a few minutes of silence he said, “I have just realized something wonderful. The activity of the mind that sees disease, lack and disharmony is similar to the waves on the lake that stop one seeing through the clear water to the beauty and life beneath. The calming of the mind is like the calming of the waves. With the stillness of the water all harmony below the surface becomes visible.”
This is a wonderful analogy. This is the way in which spiritual wholeness — perfection of all, omnipresent, already and eternally existing, already manifest — is brought out into tangible (mind-awareness) experience.
Metaphysics mistakenly calls this process ‘healing’ or ‘prospering’ or ‘harmonizing’ but the correct word for the spiritual experience is ‘revealing’ not ‘healing’. Spiritual awareness and acknowledgment reveals the wholeness and harmony already present and eternally existing — the Is — omnipresent, as everything everywhere.
Everything you have in your life at this moment, and everything you do not have, is your current experience because of the degree in which your mind is rippling with concepts, beliefs, fears, thoughts, and perceptions. The more you are aware of the presence of Spirit, therefore the calmer the rippling of your mind, the more health, harmony, happiness and abundance reveal themselves as your tangible experience. The less you are aware of the presence of Spirit, therefore the stormier the ripples of your mind, the less health, harmony, happiness and abundance reveal themselves as your tangible experience.
IMAGINE
Imagine your perfect, complete, joyous existence — in every way, and as every person, thing, place and condition now and ever in your consciousness, your ‘kingdom’ — now exists below the surface of the water. The Allness of you and everything about you. Perfection in every way, as every person, every thing, every circumstance. Think about that. That is the truth of you, right here, right now, but the mind does not see it. The mind is the rippling or, often, the storms that keep the fulfillment that you are from your experience here and now. Get this feeling that the only thing separating you—here and now — from your complete and immediate harmony, bliss and fulfillment in every way is the rippling or storms of the water’s surface — the activity of your thinking, concerned mind.
The illness or disease you or another is experiencing, the lack or limitation, the unhappiness or disharmony is nothing more than an image created by the rippling or storm of the ‘water’s surface’.
If we were to place a beautiful statue of you — a perfect representation of you at your joyous best in every way — just below the surface of a crystal - clear, completely calm lake, we would see you clearly. No ripples or storms are present to distort the image of you. If you have visited Greece or Hawaii or the Maldives for instance, you know the beautiful experience of swimming, or boating in a glass-bottom boat in the clear, still waters, watching the multi-colored fish dancing, the corals, the reefs, and the flowers as clearly as clear can be. Just for a few moments imagine the perfect statue of you just below the surface of such an ocean or lake. We see you sharply, in perfect detail, in perfect color, in perfect form. You are peaceful, happy, complete. You are abundant, healthy, joyful, successful. You are completely fulfilled in every way.
Now imagine ripples begin to disturb the water’s surface. Suddenly, the perfect, defined image of you is slightly distorted. We can’t see you as clearly. You do not look as peaceful or complete. You’re breaking up. You have a look of concern about you. Certain things seem to be missing from you. Your body looks ‘ill’. Your circumstances appear somewhat incomplete. Your love, your family, your friends all seem to have something a little wrong or unhappy or challenging or stressful about them.
Then the ripples turn to stormy waves and we can hardly make you out at all. You are fragmented, incomplete and stressed. The perfect you is practically lost to sight. I can’t make you out. All I see is some glimpse of an image but it’s fractional, distorted and discolored. Every person, thing, activity and circumstance in your life appears, by degree, disjointed, deficient and curtailed. If I was fooled by the imagery I’d think something terrible was happening to you and try to fix it, or I’d walk right past without recognizing and acknowledging you.
Ah, do you catch that? Is this not what we do every moment of the day? Every person, every animal, every tree, every plant, every object, every place, every condition, every mineral, every cell, every atom is the full bliss and perfection of Spirit existing as that person, animal, tree, plant, object, place, condition, mineral, cell or atom. Do we recognize and acknowledge It? Or are we fooled by the appearance, both the good and the bad, the harmonious and inharmonious? We are fooled! We walk right past and in our ignorance miss the greatest miracle in the universe: the full infinity and bliss of our very own Self, existing here and now, in the very place we stand.
We entertain the belief that the ‘ripples’ or ‘storms’ the mind sees, and is fooled by, are what we are. We believe them to be our reality, and the reality of every person, every animal, every thing, every situation and every condition.
STOP BEING FOOLED BY THE MIND
Stop it now! Rise in awareness into the bliss of spiritual perfection existing here and now.
Realize: a little sickness is a little ripple. A disease is a storm. The mind accepts the sickness or disease as real and then sets about trying to cure it. This is good as far as it goes. Let’s never deny or criticize anything that helps in any way. At the same time, if we are serious about discovering the spiritual completeness of self, if we are serious about discovering how the great spiritual masters throughout history healed the sick, fed the multitudes, revealed abundance, and brought happiness and wholeness, then we must learn the principle they demonstrated.
Every great spiritual healer throughout the ages—Krishna (the first spiritual master on record), Shankara, Buddha, Isaiah, Moses, Elijah, Lao Tzu, Jesus, John, Paul (previously Saul), right through to Maker Baker Eddy, Joel Goldsmith and today the Miracle Self—and others—have given us the same principle, each in their own way and each with their own analogies and metaphors, but the same principles:
Spirit is what you are, what every person is, what every thing is, what this entire universe is. Spirit fills all space. Spirit is everything, everywhere. There is nothing but Spirit. Spirit is incorporeal, invisible infinity, yet the mind experiences corporeality: tangibility and objectivity. The mind senses and experiences finiteness where there is only infinity. The mind sees, experiences and uses tangible form where there is only intangible form. The mind’s corporeal sense is not real, it is just sense, or concept. It is imagery appearing real to the mind. We have been born into an environment laden with centuries of belief that the objectified corporeal sense and experience is real.
Let us not, then, be surprised that the discovery of all being incorporeal — infinite invisible Spirit — is a difficult, if not very difficult truth to realize. Nevertheless, realize it we must if we wish to master the beauties, bounties and miracles of the spiritually - awakened consciousness. If we’ve had enough of the diseases, cruelties, injustices, poverties, lacks, limitations, selfishness, greed and miseries experienced in a world unaware of its spiritual identity it is now time, individually, to step higher, realize once and for all — and seriously, with a daily discipline — that all of the human experience, both good and bad, is but imagery ‘on the surface of the water’ — the ripples or storms on the lake — and yet, as we experience the storm the perfect whole is present and instantaneously accessible to us.
There is no ‘truth’ to the imagery seen in the rippling or stormy waters. The perfect whole is there just ‘beneath the surface’, waiting to be recognized. There is no truth to sickness, disease, lack, limitation, disharmony or unhappiness. This has been the great discovery made by the spiritual masters throughout all ages. That is why they were able to dismiss even the most destructive disease with a quick smile or wave of the hand, and it is why we can do the same today even if it takes us a more concentrated or prolonged awareness than only a quick smile. Our smile may need to be slower, but smile we may when we know the truth and are able to rest back in It letting Its perfect whole become evident to the quietened mind.
There is no more truth to disease, lack, limitation or disharmony than there is to fragmented imagery created by stormy water. How can there be anything other than Spirit if Spirit is infinite? This is the great discovery. There is no Spirit and. There is only Spirit. Therefore, what we see and accept as disease is the false reporting of the mind — the image on the stormy water — but not the truth of the person or condition. The truth of any and every person and condition is Spirit! That’s all!
There is no disease, there is only Spirit. There is no lack, there is only Spirit. There is no limitation or inability or inactivity, there is only Spirit. The evidence of the mind is always against us because the mind is capable only of corporeal sense. Spirit is incorporeal so we must dismiss the evidence of the mind and its beliefs just as readily as we dismiss the image on the rippled water. The image — the appearance the mind perceives and believes — is not the truth. Spiritual perfection and bliss is the only presence and the only truth. And—remember this important point — Spirit does not change Its nature, Its substance, Its character, Its infinity, Its form. When you and I individually walk through our lives and vocations being aware of the incorporeal infinity of bliss omnipresent as everything everywhere, even though our five senses and thoughts are giving a very different set of evidences, spiritual harmony must and does always appear tangibly.
Our awareness and acknowledgment of incorporeal Spirit being everything everywhere has the effect of ‘stilling the waters’ — calming the mind, releasing it from the worrisome and fearful images it sees. In that peace, the wholeness appears. It already and eternally exists but now is seen more wholly and clearly. The whole is revealed where before incompleteness was apparent. The storm subsides and the perfect ‘statue’ of you appears crystal clear, and all is well.
The effect as witnessed by the mind is what we call healing of the organ or function of the body, dissolving of the tumor, prospering of affairs, wealth of employment and business, the bringing of harmony to the work place or trade affairs or unions, the blossoming of love and happiness in relationships, the emerging of great talent where there seemed to be little talent, innovations that improve the lives of individuals or nations, ideas that produce greater product and produce. All of this is the effect witnessed tangibly and materially but the cause of the appearing outer harmonies is Spirit—the One and Only omnipresent existence—being realized individually by you and by me, and then seen corporeally by the mind as the health, wealth, happiness and fulfillment of tangible being.
Remember: Spirit is what all is. Spirit is perfection, love, bliss, harmony, abundance, perfect activity, perfect function, perfect fulfillment of being from the body and brain to the atom, from the mountain to the grain of sand, from the elephant to the ant. All of Spirit exists at every point in the universe at the same time. All is already manifest because Spirit is eternal perfection, It does not change, or move, or complete Itself. It already is complete, infinitely so. There is nothing to complete because All already Is, and it is Ising as you right here, right now, eternally.
The process of spiritual harmony or healing is revealing the incorporeal Is that already is, not making something happen, not improving a condition or illness, not bringing abundance to poverty, not bringing love where there is hate. All this is just the false imagery of the mind, the belief of the mind. Forget it. Dismiss it. Do not ‘work’ on the mind and its images and conditions anymore than you’d work on the images created by the stormy water. The perfect whole — in every way — is present everywhere, as everything. Let it reveal itself through your silent mind as the perfect ‘statue’ of you reveals itself through the still, clear waters.
Spiritual perfection and wholeness reveals Itself to you when the mind is still, peaceful and silent. You can’t do it; It does it. The very attempt to do it yourself is mind activity, which again blocks the spiritual whole! Do you see? The perfect whole is right there where your mind is seeing a problem. It is only the activity of the mind that is blocking the perfect wholeness from tangible appearance. Do not work on anything other than stilling the mind and bathing in the sublime Love and Fulfillment of Spirit. Then you’ll discover the whole appears right in front of your eyes. Do not try to ‘heal’ a disease; instead, know the truth about the appearance, then still the mind. Listen and let. “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It is the ocean’s ‘good pleasure’ to give you the beauty of the corals, reefs, fish and flowers. All you and I need do is still the waves, and then, like a miracle, all the beauty and bounty of the ocean is revealed to your sight where, even just a few minutes ago, it was distorted or blocked by waves. Still the waves—still the mind—and you will witness blessings after blessings, miracles after miracles, too many to count.
WHAT IS MOST BOTHERING YOU? WITNESS HARMONY NOW!
Consider what is most bothering you, or someone dear to you, this moment. Gently know the truth about the condition or situation. Know that, whatever it is, it is actually just another name for Spirit — a name the mind, in its unknowing, has given to Spirit, a concept of discord, lack or limitation. That’s okay, there is no harm in a name.
But now realize that whatever this thing or condition looks like to the mind, it is really Spirit. That’s all. The bliss, the love, the joy of Spirit existing fully and harmoniously right there. Dismiss what the mind sees. Dismiss the corporeal sense that makes this thing look frightening, or limiting, or lacking, or threatening.
Now perceive the withinness that is incorporeal Spirit. Completely forget the ‘person’, ‘thing’ or ‘situation’. Let it drop completely from your mind, and replace your thinking with spiritual truth. Ponder it. Rehearse it in your own mind. Get the feeling that because Spirit is infinite, and therefore fills all space, that—yes! — there is nothing other than incorporeal Spirit even though the mind sees millions of different corporeal people, animals, things, places, conditions. And because Spirit is eternal perfection and completeness at every point in space at the same time, it follows that Spirit does not change its nature, its character, its substance, its infinity, its omnipresence. Therefore everything the mind sees as corporeal — the bad and the good — cannot be truth. It is all a trick of the mind and can be dismissed. Never be concerned about what the mind shows you; there is no actual power in it, no actual presence, no actual influence because Spirit is all power, all presence, all influence.
As you feel an inner agreement, an inner assurance, a release from the worrisome looking ‘thing’ or ‘condition’ because you are now filling your awareness with omnipresent, incorporeal Spirit as being everything everywhere (remember, you are not thinking about the ‘thing’ or ‘condition’ now, neither are you trying to ‘convert’ or ‘send’ your Spiritual realization to ‘solve’ the ‘thing’ or ‘condition’ — you must not do either — your thinking is now only on Spirit, incorporeal, omnipresent) you now become completely still and peaceful for Spirit to reveal Itself within your silence.
Let Spirit reveal Its wholeness, Its bliss, Its joy to your withinness in Its own way. Do not ‘outline’ what or how you want Spirit to become known to you, for instance “in the form of a healed body or filled bank account or loving relationship.” That is another storm and it will block the harmony from your experience just as surely as an ocean storm will block from your vision the beauty beneath the water’s surface. Let Spirit be Spirit in, as and through you in Its own way.
You have no idea how It will reveal Itself within you — what feeling or sense of enlightenment will well up within you — but be assured of this: When you feel Spirit happening within you the outer harmony is axiomatic. Nothing in the world can stop the harmony, health, wealth and satisfaction of the tangible experience once — and every time — Spirit is felt within, and is acknowledged as the only presence — the only ‘thing’ present — from night to morning, and morning to night.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that Spirit fills you within yet leaves the outer problem unfulfilled. Impossible! All is one, not two. The inner and the outer are the same oneness. As a powerful search light floods every corner of the room with bright white light, so Spirit released in individual consciousness (the knowing and silence of the mind) floods every nook and cranny of your life. Your entire consciousness — your entire kingdom and everything in it — lights up, becomes harmonious, joyous, successful — particularly that one problem that is most bothering you. Watch it, it will blossom as paradise. It will be bliss. There will be joy where there was fear or worry. Why? Because the fullness of paradise, bliss and satisfaction is already present simply awaiting your and my knowing it, then recognizing it for what it is — incorporeal Spirit in all Its perfection and bounty in every way — our acknowledgment of Spirit being everything everywhere — no more walking past It without recognizing It and acknowledging It — and then our receptive silent mind.
In the silence all bliss and perfection is witnessed to be omnipresent, first in the inner, then shortly afterwards in the outer.
From The Miracle Self (first edition)
Chapter 4
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