Unity Metaphysics 2 (Tan Book)
13 Responsibility For Wholeness
13A RESURRECTION:
“The ‘resurrection’ of the body has nothing whatever to do with death, except that we may resurrect ourselves from every dead condition into which sense ignorance has plunged us. To be resurrected means to get out of the place that you are in and to get into another place. Resurrection is a rising into new vigor, new prosperity; a restoration to some higher state. It is absurd to suppose that it applies only to the resuscitation of a dead body.” (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 119)
“The resurrection of the body is not dependent for its demonstration on time, evolution or any of the man-made means of growth. It is the result of the elevation of the spiritually emancipated mind of the individual.” (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 123)
Ordinarily the word “resurrection” means to regain that which one has lost. Charles Fillmore sees resurrection as something more. He sees it as not only regaining a state from which one may have fallen, but to actually rise to a state higher than ever before. He says, “Resurrection is a rising into new vigor, new prosperity, a restoration to some higher state.” So we see that there is an element of “ascension” in Mr. Fillmore’s definition of resurrection.
13B MIND:
“Above all other Bible writers, Paul emphasizes the importance of the mind in the transformation of character and body. In this respect he struck a note in religion that had been mute up to this time; that is, that Spirit and Mind are akin and that man is related to God through his thoughts. Paul sounds again and again in various forms this silent but very essential chord in the unity of God and man and his body.” (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 29)
“Have faith in the power of your mind to penetrate and release the energy that is pent up in the atoms of your body, and you will be astounded at the response. Paralyzed functions anywhere in the body can be restored to action by one’s speaking to the spiritual intelligence and life within them.” (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 11)
Again and again Charles Fillmore emphasized that the connecting link between God and man is Mind, and he uses Paul as a biblical resource for this teaching. It takes but little experimenting for us today to realize that the teaching is absolutely true. How else can any of us become aware of divine ideas and relate our sense of I am to them correctly? It can be only in the mind.
13C MENTAL CAUSES:
“All things have their cause, and every cause is mental. Whoever comes in daily contact with a high order of thinking cannot help but take on some of it. His mind takes it on unconsciously just as his lungs breathe the air of the room. Ideas are catching, and no man can live where true ideas of wholeness and abundance and peace are being held without becoming more or less infected with them.” (Jesus Christ Heals 136)
The primal causes of all existing things are divine ideas. However, all things now in existence have not come directly from the primal causes, but from secondary causes. The secondary causes of existing things are the thoughts of mankind. We can pattern our thoughts from divine ideas to greater or lesser degrees. Primal (first) cause is divine, spiritual. Secondary (form producing) cause is human. Human thinking is capable of becoming more and more aligned with divine ideas, and the mind can produce results of greater and greater Truth and beauty.
13D POWER OF THOUGHT:
“You cannot have consciousness without thinking. It is the nature of the mind to think; your every thought, no matter how trivial, causes vibrations in the universal ether that ultimate in the forms of visibility. You know that the working power of mind is thought and that through thought all the conditions that seem to encompass you were formed.” (Keep a True Lent 65)
“Thoughts are alive and are endowed by the thinker with a secondary thinking power; that is, the thought entity that the I AM forms assumes an ego and begins to think but only with the power you give to them.” (Charles Fillmore Prosperity 118)
Most people take thoughts so much for granted that there is very little thinking about thought in our world today. Charles Fillmore was not only a great thinker, he was a profound observer of and thinker about thought. He beheld thoughts as actual “entities” on the mental plane which inherited a certain amount of creative power from their parent (the human thinker). He called this “the secondary power of thought.”
13E SECONDARY POWER OF THOUGHT:
“Each thought of mind is an identity that has a central ego. By this we mean that every thought has a center around which all its elements revolve and to which it is obedient when no higher power is in evidence. Thoughts are capable of expressing themselves—they think. Man thinks, and he thinks into his thoughts all that he is; hence man’s thoughts must be endowed with a secondary power of thought. There is, however, a difference between the original thinking and the secondary thought. One has its animating center in Spirit; the other, in thought. One is Son of God; the other is son of man.” (Charles Fillmore Christian Healing 50)
This paragraph, which contains Charles Fillmore’s first insight into the secondary power of thought, puzzles some readers, irritates some, and delights some. The irritant for some persons might be that this first formulation of the idea came before he began to clarify the distinction between divine ideas and human thoughts. He rather mixes them up in his earlier writings, and tends to call everything “thought.” Divine ideas are primal causes. Man’s thoughts are secondary causes. Using Bible symbolism, Mr. Fillmore says, “One is Son of God (divine ideas); the other is son of man (human thoughts).
13F SELF-CONTROL:
“The problem of self-control is never settled until all that man is comes into touch with the divine will and understanding. You must understand all your forces before you can establish them in harmony. This overcoming is easy if you go about it in the right way. But if you try to take dominion through will force and suppression, you will find it hard and will never accomplish any permanent results. Get your I AM centered in God, and from that place of Truth speak true words. In this way you will gain real spiritual mastery and raise your consciousness from the human to the divine.” (Charles Fillmore Christian Healing 115)
This paragraph contains an important key to understanding the difficulty we often have in living up to our own good intentions or in eliminating undesirable habits. The hard way to go about this is to try to attack the problem in the outer and effect change through human will. The easy way is to begin with the correct inner work. The difference between self-control and self-chaos depends for the most part on what one’s sense of I am is connected with at any time. If it is connected with any negative emotions, then self-control becomes difficult (if not impossible).
13G THINKING AND EATING:
“There is a relation between thinking and eating, and as you grow spiritually the character of your food and all that pertains to eating may have to be changed in conformity with the new order of things. If you will leave meat and all animal products out of your food you will see a change for the better. But above all, keep your thought mastery and do not be controlled by appetite. Do not fear to eat. Eat with thanksgiving and bless your food.” (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 73)
Some readers feel that Mr. Fillmore places too much emphasis on eating; others feel he did not place enough emphasis on it. When we study the Gospels to see what Jesus has to say about food and spirituality, we find that He says practically nothing other than, “Be not anxious.” In another place He says “Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matt. 15:11) In any case, Mr. Fillmore does end his paragraph with these cheerful words, “Do not fear to eat. Eat with thanksgiving and bless your food.”
13H LOVE: THE HARMONIZER:
“Among people who observe and think there is no question about love’s being the greatest harmonizing principle known to man. The question is how to get people to use love in adjusting their discords.” (Teach us to Pray 107)
Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. In expression, it is the power that joins and binds together the universe and everything in it. Love is a harmonizing, constructive power. When it is made active in consciousness, it conserves substance and reconstructs, rebuilds, and restores man and his world.” (Keep a True Lent 152)
It is important to realize that love does more than just “join and bind together.” It is possible for things to be joined and bound together that would be better separated and kept apart. The all-important thing about love is that it HARMONIZES and blesses what it causes to be unified. Discontent and inharmony in being “joined and bound together” occurs ONLY WHEN LOVE IS NO LONGER DOING THE JOINING AND BINDING. We should work to make love a permanent attitude in our outlook and in our nature. A loving attitude causes harmony to become the dominant factor in mind and body, and maintenance of good health becomes easy.
Transcribed by Phyllis Banhan on June 15, 2016.
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