How I Used Truth - Lesson 1 - Annotation 4
What causes us to lose the consciousness of our spiritual identity?
4. Giving our attention to the external, or to outer experiences of life, to the exclusion of the inner or spiritual realities, causes us to lose the consciousness of our spiritual identity.
Consciousness means the states of mind on any subject, which have been built up through both thinking and feeling. Thus we build a negative state of consciousness about a person or a situation if our thinking and feeling activities are not based on that which is essentially true. We build a positive state of consciousness when we are centered in the Truth.
If we come to a place in life where we seem to "lose the consciousness of our spiritual identity" it is because somehow we have not based our thinking and feeling on the true pattern of our innate divinity. Sometimes we have forgotten our Divine Parent, our source of life, like the child, taken from his real parents, forgets all about them. By letting our consciousness go into the "far country" of the external, we have let consciousness of our spiritual nature. The text reads on page 19:
"We get our eyes fixed on the circumference, or external of our being, We lose consciousness of the indwelling, ever active, unchanging God at the center" (How I Used Truth 19).
As self-conscious beings we have the right of choice. When we seem to have lost awareness of our divinity, it is because we have not chosen to turn consciously to the source of our being — "the indwelling, ever active, unchanging God" — in prayer. The soul literally "starves" for the "living bread." This spiritual food is in the form of ideas, or inspiration, that the soul must have for its unfoldment. If legitimate "soul food" is not forthcoming, then there will be a search in the outer or external for fulfillment of the needs of the mind, of the body, of the family. When the attention (thinking and feeling) is thus diverted to externals at the expense of inner realities, we are apt to become absorbed in the outer. We give our whole thought, interest, attention to supplying food, clothing, housing for the body; educating and entertaining the mind, providing for the needs of loved ones. If our attention is turned exclusively to these pursuits, then there is little consciousness of ourselves as spiritual beings, or of God as the source from which all the needed good comes forth. Too often, in such cases, God seems afar off, only a theory or a religious tenet.
We lose sight of that which we do not keep continually in mind, that in which we seem to have no special interest. When we are looking exclusively to the effect side of life, we are not giving much attention -- if any -- to God and our relationship to Him as His son with an inheritance of all good.
There are times in the lives of all of us when we do feel separated from God — separated from health, harmony, abundance, peace. When such periods come we may reach out, hoping for a "mediator" to draw us back to God, to reconcile us with God. As we consider our threefold nature, we see why our true "mediator" is the indwelling Christ, the I AM, our own divine nature. Jesus taught that each of us must look to the Christ within us as "mediator" and savior. Jesus' teaching and His life bear this out in every detail. This was intimated in Jesus' words found in John 16:7:
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you."
The text puts it this way on page 23:
"No man can come to the Father except through the Christ part of himself. You cannot come around through some other person or by any outside way" (How I Used Truth 23).
Rather than look outside ourselves for a "mediator," we should turn within through the process of prayer to the Christ Self that Jesus called "the Father." The words quoted from John's Gospel give evidence that Jesus sought to encourage us to look beyond His personality to the Comforter, the Christ Spirit, the Father within us.
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Preceding Entry: What does "anointing" signify? How are you the son of man? How the Son of God?
Following Entry: How is Jesus both the Elder Brother and Saviour of mankind?
