Unity Metaphysics 1 (Tan Book)
08 Self Knowledge
8A "KNOW THYSELF":
"Our most important study is our own mind, not only the intellectual mind but the spiritual mind. 'Know thyself’ was inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi; and it must be inscribed on our own temple, 'over' the door of our mind." (Keep a True Lent 38)
"'Know thyself’; know who and what you are, where you came from, what you are doing here, and where you are going. If you want to know all this, meditate upon the I AM." (Talks on Truth 76)
Self-knowledge is the true prelude to Christ consciousness. Without genuine self-knowledge other knowledge often becomes a kind of clutter in the mind. With correct self knowledge, however, other knowledge reveals its meaning and ripens into wisdom. One of the most effective ways to gain greater self knowledge is to realize that you have a dimension of your mind that is even greater than your "thinking self." This greater level of your mind can actually OBSERVE your thinking self. It can evaluate what it observes. It can make decisions about what it observes. If it chooses it can control, change, and adjust what the thinking self is doing. It is from this higher level of your mind that true self knowledge is attained.
8B I AM:
"When your voice says 'I AM,' does it do so on its own responsibility, or is it moved by an invisible One? Who is the invisible One, and what is His relation to the voice through which He speaks? These are the most important questions that were ever put to any school on earth. When we begin to consider them, in even the most primary way, we are entering the realm of the gods." (Talks on Truth 76)
When you say, "I AM," what do you really mean? If you mean only that you exist, that is not enough. If you mean you are a body, that is not enough. If you mean you are a soul, that is not enough. Even if you mean you are a spirit, that is not enough, for this I AM of you is that which HAS an existence. It HAS a body, a soul, even a spirit. If this REAL I of you is one that HAS these things, then it must be something which is even greater than these things it has. The highest concept of I AM possible to a human mind at present is that of Spirit.
8C LIVING IN TWO WORLDS:
"The conscious I can look in two directions—to the outer world where the thoughts that rise within it give sensation and feeling, which ultimate in a moving panorama of visibility; or to the world within, whence all of its life, power, and intelligence are derived." (Talks on Truth 10)
We should not make the mistake of thinking that by being conscious of living in two worlds we are making of ourselves "a house divided." Not at all. We actually then become a "HOUSE DOUBLY STRENGTHENED." Our pivotal consciousness gives us a wonderful advantage in life. We are able to view both realities and to evaluate them correctly. We see our validity and interrelationship. But we see that the inner life should have priority, for it is the realm of causes and of spiritual resources. In the symbolism of the story of Jesus, Martha, and Mary, the lesson of the relative value of our two worlds is brought out in symbolism. Martha stands for our concerned feelings for the outer life. Mary stands for our serene contemplation of our inner life. Jesus valued both women, meaning that both aspects of our life are good. But Jesus indicates that "Mary hath chosen the better part, which will never be taken from her."
8D UNEXPLORED CONSCIOUSNESS:
"This Spirit of wisdom is right now a part of the consciousness of everyone. It is in you and about you, and you will come into conscious relations with it when you believe in it and its powers. If you ignore it and thereby deny that it exists in you and for you, you remain in the darkness of ignorance. It is exactly as if a man lived in the basement of a large house and refused to go upstairs, declaring that because the upper rooms did not come down to him they were not there." (Keep a True Lent 57)
Mr. Fillmore is talking about the superconscious phase of our own minds. For those brief and rare moments when we make contact with it, the experience is unforgettable. We have new knowledge but do not know exactly how we learned it. Mr. Fillmore says that we need simply to "believe on it and its powers" in order to receive its illumination into the conscious level of our minds. He also often said that the prayer for illumination was the one most swiftly and surely answered. What causes this to be so is the existence of the superconscious phase of our minds, which is our direct connection with Divine Mind.
8E FINDING GOD:
"A key to God-Mind is with everyone—it is the action of the individual mind. Man is created in the 'image and likeness' of God; man is therefore a phase of God-Mind, and his mind must act like the original Mind. Study your own mind, and through it you will find God-Mind. In no other way can you get a complete understanding of yourself, of the universe, and of the law under which it is being brought forth." (Charles Fillmore Christian Healing 19)
One might ask the question: "If God is Omnipresence, then why do we speak of 'finding' Him?" The answer is that we do not actually find God, since Omnipresence is never absent. But what we must find is our point of contact with His Presence, and that can only be within our own consciousness. Mr. Fillmore advises us, "Study your own mind." Only we can do such a thing. We are actually MORE THAN our own mind. There is a level of us which can STUDY our own mind. Can we see the tremendous implications of this fact? If we were ONLY our own mind, then we could not rise to a dimension above it in order to observe it or "study it."
8F DIVINE IDEAS:
"Divine ideas are man's inheritance; they are pregnant with all possibility, because ideas are the foundation and cause of all that man desires... All the ideas contained in the one Father Mind are at the mental command of its offspring. Get behind a thing into the mental realm where it exists as an inexhaustible idea, and you can draw upon it perpetually and never deplete the source.” (Charles Fillmore Christian Healing 13)
Too much cannot be said about the supreme importance of divine ideas. The most powerful thing in our universe is DIVINE IDEAS. The second most powerful thing is OUR CONSCIOUSNESS OF THOSE IDEAS.
8G OUR MANY SELVES:
"We have no independent mind-there is only universal Mind—but we have consciousness in that Mind, and we have control over our own thoughts, and our thoughts fill our consciousness. By analyzing ourselves we find that we unconsciously separate our self into different personalities." (Teach Us To Pray 138)
It is true as Mr. Fillmore states it that we do not have an independent mind, in the sense that we have created it and it belongs to us exclusively. We each partake of the one Mind, each to the degree of his or her current capacity. But we do have something called a "sense of I am." We have freedom of choice as to what we shall do with our sense of I am. We can connect our sense of I am with anything we choose, and it is because of our use of this freedom of choice that we create so many different "selves," or aspects of personality. In most of us, our sense of I am is not really unified or totally coherent. It is usually fragmented and a bit chaotic. Thus, most of us are functioning as "many selves."
8H "THOUGHT PEOPLE":
"Every thought we loose in our mind carries with it a certain substance, life, and intelligence. So we might call our thoughts our 'thought people.'" (Jesus Christ Heals 138)
This paragraph contains a key to the understanding of metaphysical Bible interpretation. In the system of symbols used in our Bible, "people" stand for thoughts and feelings within an individual consciousness. Male people represent thoughts and female people represent feelings. Wicked people stand for negative thoughts and feelings, and righteous people stand for true and positive thoughts and feelings. Marriage symbolizes the harmonious unifying of thought and feeling.
8I LIFE IS CONSCIOUSNESS:
"You are mind. Your consciousness is formed of thoughts. Thoughts form barriers about the thinker, and when contended for as true they are inpregnable to other thoughts. So you are compassed about with thought barriers, the result of your heredity, your education, and your own thinking. Likewise your degree of health is determined by your thoughts, past and present." (Jesus Christ Heals 33)
In addition to being a fact, the statement that "Life is consciousness" provides the key to changing one's life.
8J SELF-OBSERVATION:
"We must learn to watch our consciousness, its impulses and desires, as the chemist watches his solutions. Man forms his own consciousness from the elements of God, and he alone is responsible for the results." (The Twelve Powers of Man 163)
When we observe ourselves, we become more than just the limits of our own mind. We momentarily transcend our "thinking self." The great importance of honest self observation was emphasized by Jesus when He said, "Watch, and pray." Watch what? Watch how you are thinking and what your current attitudes are. Observe yourself, especially your inner states. In order for a person to know what to change within his consciousness he must take time to observe what is going on within himself.
8K THE GREAT WORK:
"All things are in the consciousness and you have to learn to separate the erroneous from the true, darkness from light. The I AM must separate the sheep from the goats. This sifting begins right now and goes on until the perfect child of God is manifest and you are fully rounded out in all your Godlike attributes." (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 49)
What Mr. Fillmore is describing in this paragraph is the main assignment for us on this planet of physical existence. Our purpose is to become masters of existence. The first step in fulfilling this assignment was learning how to survive. Next was "how to be good." But the purpose for true religion on our current evolutionary level is no longer just physical survival and "how to be good." It now has to do with perfection of consciousness through individual evolution. This is the "seed" planted in race consciousness by Jesus Christ. This is the purpose of metaphysical Christianity.
Transcribed by Sheri Owen on August 10, 2015.
