Series 1 - Lesson 4 - Annotation 18
What relation is there between food and the redemption of the body?
18. Food has much to do with the redemption of the body. We eat to live, not live to eat. It is a scientific fact that the heavier and grosser foods slow up the digestive and eliminative processes. They also dull the action of the brain through which the conscious thinker must express himself. We lessen our ability to feel the uplifting power of Spirit by any practice that slows down the vital processes of the physical body. As the body has no initiative of its own, it lives in darkness unless the soul makes it actively conscious of the light, life, and love of Spirit. For the body to fulfill its purpose as a perfect instrument through which the conscious thinker may achieve the redemptive process that makes him consciously one with God, to attain the consciousness of eternal life here and now, man can wisely partake of only such foods as will increase efficiency. We know that behind everything in the manifest world is the idea that causes form. Eating the form, we are appropriating and making one with us the ideas that caused the form. If we appreciate the life and substance of Spirit we shall intelligently eat that which is vital, living, sustaining, and regenerating.
Life, light, and love are closely associated with the Word of God, for it is through our desires, feelings, thoughts, words, actions and reactions that we give form to the substance of God. The longing we have for better things and greater attainments is the effect of the soul's effort to lift the body to a higher level of intelligence in order that it, the soul, may progress onward and upward.
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Preceding Entry: How do we reach the consciousness where we discern the Lord's body?
Following Entry: Explain the "Sabbath."
