Chapter 02—Statement of Being
In the following audio and transcripts, Vera Dawson Tait provides commentary on the Correspondence School Annotations for Emilie Cady's Lessons in Truth.
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014 What do we mean by the nature of God?
With Chapter Two of Lessons in Truth, titles Statement of Being, we now embark upon another exciting step in our path of truth. We will deal with five questions on this side of the cassette. Now, I’m going to read the first one, which has two parts.
What do we mean by the nature of God? Name and explain some of the other names used to define the different aspects of God. When we speak of the nature of God, we are referring to his character, his make up. It is true that God is love, and life, and wisdom, and so forth. But what is his total nature? We could just say good. But to say good in not enough. God is absolutely good. Or shall we repeat and say God is the nature of absolute good.
Absolute is that which is unrelated to anything else. That which is pure, perfect, and undefiled. If we just say good, we have to realize that there are many forms of relative good. The good that is related to this absolute good. The nature of God, then, is that sum total of everything that we can possibly conceive of as being good. Because we have said that God is the author or source of all the ideas that are back of everything that we find in creation, then we say that the elements that make up this nature of God are these divine ideas.
We learned in our last chapter that these ideas are also our divine inheritance. What kind of ideas? Ideas of love, and life, and strength, and power, and faith, and love, and peace, and joy. We could go on and on. But remember, these are the spiritual patterns that coming forth into the universe will bring forth the various forms that are needed to fulfill your life and my life. All right, now we have said that the nature of God is absolute good made up of all of these ideas.
Then, what are some of the names that we could use to define God and the various functions of his nature? Probably, there is no word that has been used by Religionists, and I’m not referring only to the Christian religion, as much as Father. God as Father. However, when we come into a metaphysical study, we find it very necessary to go back even further than that word Father and realize that God is Principal. We’ve already referred to that in our previous chapter.
Principle, from Principium, meaning the beginning of beginnings indicates that God if the first cause, the origin, or the beginning of all things. Then, as Principle, he must move out into his creation. So we can say with all honestly that God is law. Let us go back to that word Principle, again. Every Principle we find has within it the law of its own expression. We have a principle of friendship, but we also have a law of friendship.
The law is the doing or the operating of some principle. So we realize, then, that God as Principle, also has within himself the power that can allow the functioning or operating of his nature as principle. In metaphysics another word or another name that is used for God is Mind or if we want to add the adjective divine, that makes it much more complete. God as Mind, then, is that over brooding knowingness, intelligence that moves throughout all creation.
What does it move? We always associate mind with ideas. So let us think of this mind as moving ideas out into creation. One of the most important points that is brought out in the book Mistress of Genesis by Charles [Filmore 00:04:40] is that everything in creation is based upon ideas. So, it becomes an easy thing for us to say God is mind. Somehow we seem to be able to relate God as mind with the movement of our own mind.
God is also the creator, first cause, and beginning, as I said before. But, there is another word that has been used a great deal by Charles [Filmore 00:05:11] that is found, also, in the book Lessons in Truth and that is the word being. It may seem a word that’s far from our particular way of thinking or perhaps even from our every day practical life. But when you think of being as the aggregate of all that God is, then it begins to have meaning.
But probably the best explanation of being is that it is the one presence and the one power. Then, when I say God as being is the very source of my life. At one time or other, it may have even more meaning to me than to say God is Principle and even to say God is Father. But I want to refer again to God as Father. Probably, one thing that most metaphysical movements have added to this description of God as Father is the word mother.
Our feeling is that God is not only the active phase of all existence, but he is also that passive phase upon which action moves. So therefore, we refer so often to our Father, Mother God. Another name that is used throughout truth teachings and certainly throughout the unity teachings is God as spirit. As a matter of fact, this is how chapter two opens. Let me read what Doctor Katie says.
“When Jesus was talking with a Samaritan woman at the well, he said to her, “God is spirit and those who worship him, must worship in spirit and truth.” God is a spirit is read in some versions but the marginal note definitely renders this passage, God is spirit.” Now listen to this, to say as a spirit would be to imply the existence of more than one spirit. Jesus, in his statement, did not imply this.
What is spirit? Spirit is that which enlivens and enlightens anything. Think of a person coming into a room and you say, “Oh, he brought such a spirit of joy.” Or, “He brought such a spirit of peace.” Somehow, you and I know what is meant. The Bible even tells us that the letter kill us, but the spirit give us life. If God is spirit, then, he is the life Principle of every atom of creation, which means of every atom of your life and mine. It’s a wonderful word. God is spirit.
Somehow or other, it gives us the feeling of completeness. It gives us the feeling that there could be no absence of God anywhere. I’d like to tell a rather funny story here. Some years ago, in watching one of the cartoons at a movie, I was so interested to find that as the scene was laid, it was in a Drug Store. On the shelves of the Drug Store were all the different items. Cakes of soap, bottles of this, and bottles of that.
In the cartoon, the Chemist or the Druggist went to the door, and went out, and locked the door behind him. Suddenly, everything in the Drug Store came alive. Of course, like any cartoon, it was very interesting and very toonful. But the thing that struck me the most was way off on a shelf in a corner were three bottles. It said on these bottles, spirits of ammonia. Suddenly, pop went the corks from the bottles and a kind of a feathery substance, very much like smoke, seemed to issue forth.
In a very deep voice, these three bottles began to sing, we are spirits of ammonia. A strange thing happened to me at that moment, because I was very new to the study of truth. I had been, like a lot of other people, trying to find out what spirit was. I was very familiar with spirits of ammonia and I knew that there was a time that when the ladies fainted, somebody pushed a bottle of spirits of ammonia under the nose and it revived the lady who had fainted.
It gave a new meaning to me, silly as this appeared to be, just from a cartoon. Then, I realized that spirit is that which interpenetrates everything in our universe. So therefore, I can repeat again, spirit means the life principle. There’s only one other word or name that I want to mention here and that is, God as truth. What is truth? Most people would say it is the reality. Meaning, in most cases that which we see in our outer world.
However, for a metaphysical standpoint, we know that reality is that which is of God, created by God, and can never be changed upon any consideration. Well, then truth, being the reality, must be the divine plan that overrides all creation. God is truth. He’s the truth of my being. As truth then, he becomes the life of my body. He is the truth of my mind. As truth, he becomes the wisdom and the intelligence that I need. He is the truth of my hands. He becomes the power back of the skill that is needed in anything that I do. So as we gather together these various names for God, we begin to have a slight understanding of what God can mean to each one of us.
015 What is the relation of God to man?
Now, let’s pass on to question two. We’ll see that this is so related, also, to question one. What is the relationship of God to man and to all his creation? Sometimes students read that as one question. But strictly speaking, the last part must be included. What is the relation of God to man?
It’s scarcely mention much about that because of what we’ve already done previously. However, it’s all very well to say, “Oh, well God is the Creator.” But the relation of God is the relationship of Father to son. Then, if we say, well what is the relation of God to all his creation, including man. Then, we have to say creator to the created or mind to its ideas. Then we can more or less tie all that up together and say God is not only creator, but he is maintainer and sustainer of all creation, including man.
Sometimes, in this consideration of God as the father to son. We find it very easy to accept. But when we come to think of God as mind, as related to man as an idea, that’s not always so easy. But why not? If God is mind and if all of creation comes forth from that mind as an idea, then man is also an idea in God mind. But there’s something a little different about man. Man is the one idea that contains all ideas.
How can I say that? I can say it because the Bible says to me, man is made in the image and after the likeness of God. That means he is the sum total of the entire nature of God come forth in degree and being manifest according to mans own unfullment and use of the ideas that are his by divine inheritance. A very revealing sentence is found in the first chapter of Mistress of Genesis by Charles [Filmore 00:13:29] and this is the way it reads.
Every idea has a specific function to perform. How can I say, then, that the relation of God to all his creation is as mind to its ideas. I can say it because every idea of God has a specific function to perform. The robin has one way of expressing itself. The oak tree, another. The giant redwoods, another. All throughout nature, throughout creation, the creatures of the sea, the creatures of air, all have a specific function to perform because back of each one is a divine idea. Now do you understand what the relation between God and man, relation between God and all his creation, including man, really is? It will open to you a new world to realize that there is nothing that is formed that is not based upon a divine idea.
016 Is God a person?
You have probably found already that the questions that we’ve considered so far seem to dovetail and move one into the other. The third question of this particular chapter is very simple. Is God a person? Explain.
There’s only one real answer, no. But we cannot leave it there. What is a person? The person that you and I see in our every day living is a person or an individual of flesh and blood limited to time and space. Changeable and certainly not eternal as we look at him as a person. But God, we have said, is spirit. Spirit is not flesh and blood. Spirit is not confined to time, or space, or condition. Spirit is that which enlivens and enlightens all of creation.
So therefore, it’s impossible for you and me to think of God as a person. Yet, this same spirit of which we are talking at the moment is that which moves through every person. Because of the relation of this third question, is God a person, to all of the other questions, this is about all we need to consider on this particular point.
017 What is love in divine mind?
Now, let us move on to question four. We’re going to talk now of one of the elements that make up the nature of God. This is the question, what is love in divine mind? Now, notice that. It didn’t say, what is love. It says, what is love in divine mind? That’s the first part of the question. How does it manifest in man and throughout all creation?
Do you remember in the last chapter, we dealt with love. We said that love is an idea. It is one of these ideas that make up man’s divine inheritance. One of the ideas that make up the nature of God. What is love? Right now, the world is saying, we need more love. That’s what the world needs. But what is this quality that we are now speaking of as an idea in divine mind? Do you remember in the last chapter, we said that a favorite quotation or definition of Charles [Filmore’s 00:17:03] is, love is the attracting, harmonizing, unifying, equalizing, binding or cementing quality of mind.
To simplify that, we can say that love is the unifying idea. It is that that once having been attracted to person or condition, then unifies the individual. Or the thing or even the living creature with that object toward which it has found its afinity. Love manifests in man in so many marvelous ways. All of us, as the chapter tells us, know that love manifests in that wonderful bond that is between husband and wife, mother and child, father and child. Between friends, between relations. We call this, in many cases, affection.
It is that something that seems to rise above, when it is being perfectly expressed, anything that the individual does in the world of the outer. But love is even more than this. Love, as the unifying power, is that which produces in man the ability to understand his fellow man. It gives him kindness, compassion, it gives him courtesy. It gives him that sense of consideration that helps to make of our world a brotherhood of man.
Probably, the understanding of God and Father is one of the most vital things that we can come to, because it is only as we understand the Fatherhood of God that we will ever come to know the brotherhood of man. What is it that has prompted man to form societies for the betterment of mankind in general? What is it that has caused men of all nations to come together in peace conferences? Surely, it must be this quality of love.
Of course everybody has life. Everybody has the faith, even if they’re not always using it. But love becomes, as Paul says, the fulfilling of the law. It does not mean that love is any greater quality, because no quality in God, and you will learn this in one of the future lessons, can be any greater than another. But the special job of love is to unify and to bind all together. You remember that quotation I gave from Mistress of Genesis, every idea has a specific function to perform.
Well, love has the function of unifying all man, all conditions, and all creation. Without this understanding, we begin to set ourselves apart from other people. We feel, well I must love those of my own home. I must love those with whom I work and associate. But you see, love goes far beyond that. So let me repeat again. Love, in divine mind, is the idea of universal unity. Or shall we say the unifying power.
We’ve said how it manifests in man. How does it manifest throughout creation? Can I say one tree loves another? Or one Robin loves another Robin? Or one reptile loves another? Well that, in itself, sounds somewhat foolish. But when we go back to the function of love as the unifying idea, then we can see that as far as a specie is concerned, there will be that attraction and that unifying quality. So love does move throughout creation.
We could actually say that love moves throughout the mineral kingdom. In order to produce any metal, certain atoms must be drawn together. Is that not the power of love? As a matter of fact, in the first chapter of Mistress of Genesis, Charles [Filmore 00:21:22] actually refers to gravity as being the power of love expressing throughout creation. Has this given you a little greater understanding of the quality of love?
018 What do we mean when we say God is wisdom?
Now, let’s go on to the last question for this side of our cassette tape. What do we mean when we say God is wisdom? Second part of the question, how does intelligence manifest in man and in the rest of creation? We would have to interpose there what is intelligence and how does it manifest. But let’s deal first with the first part. What do we mean when we say God is wisdom?
I cannot say I mean God is knowledge, because knowledge is the gathering of facts. So I’m not concerned with the gathering of facts. But there must be something that knows. So I say that God, as wisdom, is the knowing power of the entire creation. He is that that knows what has to be done for every specie including man. It is an interesting thing to realize that no atom of creation can be left without this wisdom. But somehow or other, we don’t ... as it demonstrates in the outer world, we don’t call it wisdom so much as intelligence.
So we say that every atom of creation has intelligence. Meaning, that God’s wisdom, which is really the sum total of his nature and should include love, is expressing at the level of that particular specie of creation. So therefore, I could say that intelligence, moving through creation, is the know how. It is that which knows exactly how that particular idea must function. Must fulfill its own specific character.
How does this intelligence, then, manifest in man? I might say, “Well, God is wisdom. God is my wisdom.” But when I say God is also intelligence and that intelligence moves through every part of my being, I come to the realization that there’s intelligence in the cells of my heart, so the heart knows what to do. There’s intelligence in the cells of my brain, so that my brain knows what to do. The two do not get into conflict, we hope. There is intelligence throughout every atom of my being, because there is a know how.
This intelligence, of course, as it begins to express through man in his outer world, takes so many marvelous and wonderful forms. We think, first of all perhaps, of the cave man. Suddenly, he realized that the food that he was eating could be improved because he had started a fire. He had rubbed sticks together and found that he could consume or he could burn things. From that, he went on and on. The intelligence moving told him that he could use his hands for certain things. Skill began to be developed.
Many things he didn’t understand about his world and his world frightened him. But step by step, as man unfolded, this intelligence was the know how that moved him into ever wider and broader expressions of what? Of his true divine nature, always in divine order. It is the intelligence of man moving in and through man that brings about all of the wonderful changes. We like to think that love will move man, impel him to greater heights. But unless he had that intelligence to work along with love, he wouldn’t know in what direction he was going.
So just think of that for yourself. That intelligence is that which moves through me, bringing me to a greater understanding of whatever I need to do in life. If I enter into what I call prayer and I ask for God’s guidance, I certainly need the intelligence to know how to carry that through. What about intelligence in all of creation. I don’t think I need to go very much into that, because you already know.
The intelligence of the bird to build a nest, quite different to that of another specie. The intelligence of the snake at a certain time to shed its skin. The intelligence of the growing grass to know exactly when to come forth. The intelligence of the flower, the intelligence of the tree. It’s almost startling when we stop to think about the movement of God’s wisdom throughout this part of his creation.
One of the most interesting things in considering the word intelligence is something I referred to a moment or two ago. This intelligence doesn’t seem to interfere with the intelligence as it moves through another part of creation. That is what is so wonderful. I was told once that if you were to put a Lima bean in the ground and cover it with earth, it would still know how to send its chute down into the earth, or the roots, so that chute would come up to the light.
Even if the end of the Lima bean, which was intended the chute upward into the light, had been planted down into the soil, it would still come up. What about the plant that’s coming up through the earth and it meets a boulder? It goes around it. What is it that moves in the Lima bean and in the plant that beats the obstacle of a boulder? It has to be intelligence. But it is an intelligence to meet its own level of unfullment. Or its own level in its own specie.
Can you understand, then, that God as wisdom, moves throughout all creation as the intelligence that is seeking but one thing and that is perfection. Have you ever realized that? That even when something occurs in your physical body, immediately, the body intelligence starts to either circumvent that which has caused injury or to try and annihilate it entirely. Why? Because every atom of creation really knows only one desire, the desire for perfection.
An illustration that might have meaning concerning intelligence throughout creation, other than man, is one that was brought to my notice during a conference here at Unity Village. A movie was being shown to do with creation, but not from a religious standpoint, entirely from nature. It was so interesting to see a tight bud suddenly open up under time lapse photography. All of the flowing of rivers and trees growing up out of what seemed to be nothing.
But out of all this, the thing that had the greatest impact on me and actually became a real truth lesson in my life was the story of the little grunion fish or silver sides. This is what the lecturer told us this movie was being shown. This fish is the only one that lays its eggs upon dry land. But remember, it has to know how. It is a fish and it requires water. This little fish has to learn or know the exact month, week, day, hour, minute, and even second when it must come up with a wave, go into the dry sand, lay its eggs, and be ready to take the next wave back. What is that but intelligence?
No other fish has exactly the same movement of intelligence. To me it seems so interesting to think of the various ways that God has taken to express his wisdom through the intelligence of nature. Now, to close this side of the cassette. Suppose we keep this thought in mind. God as absolute good, is the love and wisdom moving throughout me and my world.
019 What is power in divine mind?
Now, we’re going to consider two more ideas that make up the nature of God or make up man’s divine inheritance. These will be in two separate questions. Then, we will have three other questions to conclude this particular chapter. All right, the first question we’re dealing with is actually number six. What is power in divine mind? Now, remember as was mentioned before, we’re not saying what is power, we’re saying what is power in divine mind.
Power is, in a simple way, the doing idea. It is that which allows us to accomplish anything, to master anything. A good many years ago, it was found that one of the teachers was using the word producing in connection with power. This interested many of the other teachers here at Unity. We came to the conclusion that the reason for this was that by using the word producing, the teacher felt that somehow the real character or quality of power could be understood.
Now, is that not true? If power is the doing ... accomplishing idea, it has to be the producing idea. We speak of love as a principle. We speak of imagination as a principle. We speak of faith as a principle. But no principle moves, as has been mentioned before, until the law of its own expression moves it into manifestation. Therefore, each of these principles that we’ve discovered and talked about, must be moved by power.
Does it not stand to reason, then, that the doing power of love is that which will bring forth love’s own character. The doing power of faith, for instance, is that which will fulfill it’s own character. So let me repeat again, power is the doing idea, or quality, but the doing idea in divine mind which will accomplish whatever it is directed toward and eventually will produce that which we feel we want.
However, there’s something we must remember about these ideas of God. They are originally principles or powers of God mind. But as they operate through you and me, they become abilities or faculties of our mind. So this wonderful faculty called power is at our disposal. It takes exactly the same amount of power, probably, to lift a man as it does to knock a man down. We’re still using the one power because there is only one power in the universe. That is this quality that belongs to the nature of God.
Any idea is really at the mercy of the individual using it. Let me go back to that statement. Every idea has a specific function to perform. But if I don’t allow it to fulfill it’s function, then it will work according to its own nature. But the production will not be what I would like. Therefore, when I understand that God has given to me power as part of my inheritance, then I had better learn how to use this particular faculty or ability of mind or my consciousness.
As far as the universe is concerned, we can think of power as the energy or the force that moves throughout all creation. Have you ever stopped to think that, actually, energy and force cannot really become power until they are harnessed. I remember the first time I saw Niagara Falls after I had grown up. I looked at that river coming to a precipice and then going down so many, many feet. I thought to myself, there is much energy in the flow of that river and it was a rather placid flow.
But the moment it hit that rock that began the downward track, I realized there was tremendous energy. Energy that could destroy. But, I also knew that quite close to Niagara Falls was a very large Hydro Plant. It hit me so clearly at that moment, this is what power is. The harnessing of energy or of the forces of nature. When I consider, then, that God has given to me not only the ability to do, but the ability to harness or to gather together all of the powers of my nature. I realize that in my hands lies one of the greatest secrets that man can ever learn.
How does power manifest throughout the universe, throughout nature, throughout the vegetable kingdom, you and I know that. In the vegetable kingdom, it is the power to grow. It is the power to reproduce after its own particular kind. In the mineral kingdom, as I mentioned once before, it is the ability for certain to be drawn together and other atoms to be repelled until a certain mineral is produced. Throughout the animal kingdom, we see the same thing. We see this ability to come forth, reproduce according to the nature of the specie.
020 What is substance in divine mind?
Now, let us go on to the seventh question, which is the second on this side of the cassette tape. What is substance in divine mind? That’s the first part. How does it manifest in man and throughout all creation? Let me read something from this chapter. God, then, is the substance from sub, under, and starry to stand. Or the real thing standing under every visible form of life, love, intelligence, or power. Each rock, tree, animal, every visible thing is a manifestation of the one spirit, God, differing only in degree of manifestation. Each of the numberless modes of manifestation or individualities, however insignificant, contains the whole.
That is a wonderful statement. Now, let us go a little further. One of the words that Charles [Filmore 00:37:39] used regarding substance, may have little meaning to you. Yet, at the same time, it may have meaning to other people. He used to call substance, stuff, or adding the adjective the divine stuff. We can think of substance if it is that which stands under everything as being the raw material out of which all things are formed. Because of that, let us boil it down to a rather simple definition.
Substance is the unformed Mind essence out of which all things are formed. Now, mind there, will be with a capital M, referring to God as Mind or divine Mind. It’s a very interesting thing to consider, also, that sometimes we talk of substance as being formless. But at one time, a student brought this to my attention. She said to me, “Why do you use the word formless, regarding substance? When you use that word, you almost do away with the possibility of form. Why don’t you say that substance is the unformed mind essence? Doesn’t that seem clearer to you?” Out of which all things are formed.
Think about it. It’ll have a great deal of meaning to you. But substance is invisible. Therefore, it has to be that mind stuff or essence that brings into manifestation the things that you and I can handle, that we can see, that we can smell, that we can even hear. In other words, substance is that which brings into the outer world that which can be recognized by any or all of the five senses. We speak about the substance of thought and none of us ever feels that there’s anything wrong with that. Yet, we know that we can see thought. We say, “The substance of thought.”
Yet, we could look at each formed thing in the universe and say back of that there is substance. What about this thing we call material substance? We’ll learn more of that as our lessons go on. But actually, that which we see in form that we call material is only the outward form of this invisible substance. How does substance manifest in man and throughout creation? Coming back to what I said, it manifests as the substance of thought.
It manifests throughout his body as that which is behind every cell, nerve, tissue, bone. It is that which holds within it patterns. That may seem a little difficult to you at first. But think of substance as that which holds or embodies all of these ideas of God. Can you see why sometimes substance is referred to as the presence of God? I’m going to give you a little illustration here. Fleischmann’s Yeast people were giving a demonstration of all of the things that could be done with one basic piece of dough.
I wasn’t very old at the time and it was rather fascinating to watch this Chef. With an enormously large piece of dough on a table. With his quick, and fast, and skillful hands, he would tear off a little of that dough, mold it in all kinds of ways, put it on trays. Then, eventually, it was placed in an oven. When these various pieces of dough came out, there were scarcely any two alike. At that moment, it seemed to do something in my own consciousness, small as I was. But it was not until years later when I sought almost desperately to understand what this substance is.
So what is it? It is that essence which I lay hold of with my mind. My thinking and my feeling acting as tools, take hold of the spiritual patterns which are ideas. Placing these patterns in divine substance, cut as it were, the pattern and it becomes as Doctor Emit Fox once called it, a mental equivalent. That mental equivalent, or that which I have pictured in my mind, actually becomes a type of magnet that begins to draw to me from the outside world all that is needed to fulfill that particular desire or wish.
Let us take an affirmation or an affirmative prayer. Let us say we are praying for health. Let us take a statement. Something like this, God is my health. What have I done? I have taken hold, in my thinking and eventually in my thinking, of the idea of life. Because life will produce a condition that I call health in my body. As I begin to build this mental picture or mental equivalent in my mind, I find that many fascinating things begin to happen.
Either I am drawn to things in the outer that will begin to improve the state of my body until health can come forward. Probably, one of the most marvelous that this mental equivalent or magnet does, is to enable me to use the power of denial to cleanse from consciousness any thought that ill health is part of my inheritance. I could go on and on with illustrations like this. As far as prosperity is concerned or my relations with other people. But I most hold to that one that, that substance actually is the mental equivalent with which I work provided I have placed upon this plastic substance the pattern that I want to come forth in my life.
There’s one thing you and I must remember above all things. This substance isn’t going to wait until I put in only perfect patterns. But if I begin to put a mental equivalent in my mind of negation, this plastic substance has no other alternative but to fulfill the pattern that I have placed there. How does this substance manifest throughout all creation? Of course, this is going to include man. It manifests, eventually, as bodies, as also the food that is needed to sustain those bodies. As far as man is concerned, everything in his life that is needed to make it the abundant life of which Jesus spoke.
You remember, as I read from Lessons in Truth, it said each rock, tree, animal, every visible thing is a manifestation of the one spirit God. Note this, differing only in degree of manifestation. Remember this above all things, manifestation is that which is cognizant to any of the five senses.
021 Explain God cannot be separated from his creation.
I think, now, we’re ready to go on to our eighth question, which will be the third on this side of the cassette tape. This also fits into previous questions.
There is a quotation. “God cannot be separated from his creation.” Explain this statement. This should actually be a very simple answer. If God is the source, if he is the creator, he couldn’t possibly be separated from his creation because it has nothing upon which to stand, it has nothing upon which to exist. In this chapter of Lessons in Truth, Doctor Katie refers to the word exist. She says this, “God is. Man exists from X out of and [inaudible 00:46:17] dare to stand forth.” In other words, man stands forth out of God.
As a creation of God, man has never broken the umbilical cord between him and his Father / Mother God. He may think he has separated from God. But that is a circumstance that occurs only in his consciousness, never in reality. Think of this, for instance. If you suddenly seem to get an idea and you use power to go forth and do something about that idea, even if it brings forth a manifest object or a condition that can be seen with the physical eyes. Is that idea separated from your mind? Can it ever be separated?
Oh, you might have a type of mental amnesia and forget it. But strictly speaking, that idea is never separated from your mind. Therefore, if God is Mind and you are an idea, come forth from that Mind, it is absolutely impossible. You could not take a breath, you could not raise a hand, you can not move it into direction were it not for that continual oneness between you and your Father. Do you see how this statement has fit into almost everything that we have said so far in this chapter and the previous one?
022 Explain God as principle.
Now, let us go on to question nine or the fourth one in this particular part of our cassette tape. Explain God as Principle, that’s the first part. Explain God as personal loving Father. Whether you believe it or not, this is going to be a question and I hope the answer is going to have great meaning in your life if it has not done so already. God as Principle is impersonal, general, universal. Let me read from the chapter.
Many have thought of God as a personal being. The statement that God is Principle chills them. In terror, they cry out, “They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him.” Broader and more learned minds are always cramped by the thought of God as person. For personality limits to place and time. Now, listen to this because it is very important. God is the name we give to that unchangeable inexorable Principle at the source of all existence.
If God is impersonal, general, universal, then we have something on which to build, a certainty that he will not change. Referring again to the book, the statement that God is Principle chills them. You see, thinking of God only in this way seems to put him so far apart from us. Yet, all the time what we’re seeking for is a sense of oneness, a sense of unity. We find that any principle, the principle of music, the principle of baking, the principle of Engineering is impersonal, general, and universal.
But notice this, the moment any principle starts to work through some agency, it becomes to that agency personal, specific, and individual. So it should not be hard for us to realize that God is, first of all, impersonal principle. But above all, he is personal loving Father. If he were only Principle, then the sense of prayer would have little meaning. But if he were only personal loving Father, there might be times when we would wonder if he could change. But knowing him to be personal loving Father and at the same time impersonal Principle gives us a foundation upon which to move.
If you should find this question of principle and personal loving Father a little difficult to grasp, think of any musical instrument. The principle of music has to be general, impersonal, and universal. But when some individual takes that instrument and brings forth harmony, then could we not say that music has become personal to that particular individual? Or to the ones that listen to it? It makes no difference what we begin to consider in the outer world. We will find back of each principle, some agency that will bring that principle out into something that is much more general and personal to the individual.
Even little things like cooking and baking. They become personal, yet there is definitely a principle back of each. Anybody that has refused to follow a recipe not knowing the recipe will know this. Of course, there are those very good cooks, of course, that have the principle established so definitely in their minds that they don’t seem to need a recipe to look at. But there are many others who need to follow a certain blueprint.
A principle, remember always, is the starter of some action or activity. When that action or activity moves through some agent or agency, then it has to be personal and very, very specific to that particular instrument or individual.
023 What is satisfaction?
Now, let’s consider our tenth question. Let me read it in its entirety. What is satisfaction? How may we find satisfaction for all our desires? Now, do you notice the first part of that question? Doesn’t ask what satisfaction is from a metaphysical standpoint. It just asks what is satisfaction. What do you mean, you say, “Oh, I was so satisfied with thus and so.” What do you mean when you say, “I had such a sense of satisfaction.”
Do you not mean that you have a wonderful feeling of something having been completed? Of something having been fulfilled? Man seeks, above all things, satisfaction. He doesn’t always know what he means by this satisfaction, but he knows that he has a groping or a feeling after that which gives him a sense of well being. Let me read from the chapter.
Hitherto, we have turned our heart and efforts toward the external for fulfillment of our desires and for satisfaction and we’ve been grievously disappointed. Listen to this next part. The hunger of every one for satisfaction is only the cry of the homesick child for its Father / Mother God. It is only the spirit’s desire in us to come forth into our consciousness as more and more perfection. Until, we shall have become fully conscious of our oneness with all perfection. Man never has been and never will be satisfied with anything less.
In the fifteenth chapter of Mathew, we have one of the most wonderful parables that we could possibly read and certainly study. It is the parable of the prodigal son. Do you know why this is so very important to you and me? Because, the prodigal son represents the evolving soul. Your soul and mine. There’s an interesting thing occurs. I believe it’s in the fifteenth verse in the revised version, it speaks about the prodigal son would gladly have eaten of the pods that the swine did eat.
The King James or authorized version says that the prodigal would fain have eaten of the husks. Do you realize that it does not say that the prodigal son ate of the husks or of the pods, as the revised standard version puts it. It only said he would gladly have done it. You and I can never be satisfied with anything less than spiritual food. What is our spiritual food? Ideas.
You remember we talked about meditation and prayer as being the mealtime of the soul? We may think that if we could have this material thing and another material thing, we would be satisfied. But bear this in mind, we are not saying there is anything wrong with material things. We are only trying to put first things first. Do you remember the statement of Jesus, “Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” I am quoting for the authorized version of the Bible. It reads slightly different in the revised standard version.
Seek ye first, what? The Kingdom of God. What is this Kingdom of God? It’s nothing more or less than the realm of divine ideas. It is nothing more or less than the nature of God made up of divine ideas. Or it is nothing more or less than your inheritance and mine. But, the command is, seek ye first and all these things shall be added. But there’s something that occurred in between there. It said, “And, his righteousness.”
From a metaphysical standpoint, we like to think ... and I know it’s a play on words. That righteousness is the right use of divine ideas. Seek ye first the realms of ideas, the right use of those ideas, and all these things or forms shall be added unto you. Do you realize that an idea couldn’t possibly added unto you and me, because it’s part of our own divine nature. It’s part of our inheritance, so you couldn’t add an idea.
You may become aware of an idea in your mind, but you haven’t added it. You have just brought it out, as it were, into the light of your mentality. But, if you’re going to put a form around that idea, then it’s got to be added. These ideas, as the spiritual patterns, rightly used will go into this divine substance. Forming, as I said before, a mental equivalent we’ll draw in the outer world all that is needed to bring a form to that idea. Thoughts are not ideas. Thoughts are that which has resulted in our mind through the nucleus of an idea.
As we put our thinking and our feeling to work on some idea, we have built a thought about something. When I consider what it is that really makes me satisfied, I have to say, only divine ideas. Could I be satisfied with anything less than the idea of love? Could I be satisfied with some outer thing that had no meaning? No, because even if I feel that I love something in my world, I am loving the idea that it has expressed.
Now, let’s go to the second part of our question. How may we find satisfaction for all our desires? Well, we’ve just about covered it in this first part. Whenever you come across the word how, think of the words method or manner. So what is the method or manner by which we find satisfaction for all our desires. Jesus said seek ye first his kingdom. How can I seek that kingdom? By turning within, I call it prayer, I call it the silence. There laying hold of the idea that is necessary to really satisfy my soul and bring forth in the outer world that which is needed to fulfill my life.
You see, we must remember that when we’re talking of ideas, we aren’t saying that we want ideas only. We want the forms that those ideas take in our outer world. Suddenly, we feel that it’s right to have a trip, or to take a vacation, or a holiday. That is the idea. But we could think of that for months and months and let the time go by. But we know that this idea must come into manifestation. As a matter of fact, Charles [Filmore 01:00:12] says in the [adenda 01:00:13] to the metaphysical Bible dictionary that creation is not complete until it is manifest.
So we could say that no idea has really fulfilled its purpose until it has become manifest as shelter, food, clothing, education, vacations, or holidays, music, entertainment, the ability to work in a certain career or profession, or whatever it is that beyond all things will bring satisfaction to our individual lives. Let me ask the question again, how may we find satisfaction for all our desires? By turning within to that indwelling spirit that we call God. That we term our Father / Mother God.
To close this particular part of our chapter, let me read the last paragraph. There is but one source of being. This source of the living fountain of all good. Be it life, love, wisdom, power. The giver of all good gifts. This source and you are connected every moment of your existence. You have power to draw on this source for all of good you are or ever will be capable of desiring. Let the theme of this paragraph act as a meditation for the closing of this chapter.
