THE RIGHT
WAY
The story
of the fishing trip, as related in the
Bible, is very illuminating when spiritually understood. We find Jesus
telling his disciples to "Launch out into the deep" (Luke 5:4), meaning
that we are to come unto the infinite. It is significant to
hear their first words to Jesus, "We have toiled all the night and have
taken nothing." How many of us, too, have had such a trying and
bewildering experience, perhaps toiling both night and day with words
and thoughts, with books and teachings, yet getting nothing, nor
knowing why. We read in John 21, 5th and 6th
verses that Jesus said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side
of the ship, and ye shall find… and now they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes." Reader, can you tell just what would be
the "right side of the ship," that you may cast here also?
When they
followed Jesus’ command, lo, everything
was there that they sought, and in overwhelming abundance. Taken
literally this account has no value to it at all, for the right side
surely could not have been just the other side of the ship! It has but
one meaning – the right side is the right way! By looking into
the infinite
we shall see ourself as we are, and identifying with this Substance,
Spirit, we are scarcely able to contain the wonder and glory of its
infinite and all-satisfying realities. What a difference it makes if
one toils with the various mental practices, struggles with conflicting
thought and effort, or if he deals confidently and exclusively with
pure Spirit? Everything he needs is now at his command, since he
himself is this Spirit, Self-existent, Self-contained and
Self-sustaining. He knows each of us to be complete in ourself, each
entitled to all, and all at our command, for infinite Spirit is one
indivisible Substance. Since we are in and of the Infinite, we are and
have all that the Infinite includes. This Divine Light and
Understanding is "the right side," this, alone, the right way.
Only as
Spirit, can we claim the right to all things
and be secure, our body safe from danger. Think, if it were possible to
add materiality to the alphabet, how fatal would be the result. Every
letter would then be subject to accident, loss, decay, and extinction.
Think also how terrible it would be if Spirit could ever be
materialized! Immediately it would be subject to dissolution and
annihilation. Truly, matter cannot be added to Spirit, nor weight and
size to its spiritual ideas. Absolutely, we are Spirit now, and ever
shall be, and this living Reality awaits the experience of us all. On
the other hand, one’s body as matter is never more or less than a
corpse at any time. Believing one’s form of Life to be material or
human subjects him to the darkness of false supposition, and in this
sleep he dreams of phantoms and fantasies.
Neither
fire nor water can reach the letters
composing the alphabet, nor sword or pain. In exactly the same way, we
can regard our body and its every part, that is, to be purely mental,
in and of Spirit, absolutely safe and secure from all accidents,
disease, and death. Therefore, instead of attempting to heal thoughts,
bodies, or diseases, give your attention wholly to the understanding
that I Am Spirit, inclusive of my body, my universe, and my
existence in full. This is indeed the body not made with hands, eternal
in Spirit. As the veil lifts, the glorious vision is this, Spirit
is all and All is Spirit!
Spirit is
the Substance with which we think, Spirit
is the Substance which we see. Nor need we affirm any truth when once
we see this clearly and understandingly; nor deny anything which we
know has no existence anywhere, or at all. Why should one continue to
struggle in darkness, with inconsistencies and confusions, when the joy
and glory of knowing that we are Spirit awaits us all? How simple and
easy to accept immeasurable and immaculate Spirit to be all of us, and
we to be wholly this. When we are lighted with the Light of our own
Being, we know we are Self-existent and Self-contained. Beauty, music,
song, color, rhythm, and harmony are all characteristics of Spirit, and
so are spiritually mental and eternal, thus ever at hand, ever our very
own. There is no space where Spirit is not, since Spirit is infinite
and has no opposite. Spirit is not fifty percent Spirit, and the rest
of it some other substance, nor is Spirit ninety-nine percent Spirit;
but Spirit is the infinite All-in-all, besides which there is
no one or any thing else. At every point of Being, Spirit is the same,
ever free, flawless, and absolute. Only here on this right side, in
this true and perfect understanding, can we find that which shall
satisfy us, enrich, and glorify us everlastingly.
"Where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
No effort is needed. All that is required is Spiritual Revelation and
Illumination, which comes through spiritual readiness, and a fasting
from intellectualism, personalities, and wrong teaching. Consecrating
ourself to Spirit, and to spiritual realities, we shall be obeying the
words of Christ, "Launch out into the deep! Cast the net on the right
side!" Then, through love of the Perfect, for the Perfect, and by the
Perfect, we shall know and experience Spirit to be Omniscience,
Omnipresence, and Omnipotence, verily, the One, the All
and the Only. Here we see nothing to change or to be changed;
to heal or to be healed.
My Peace
I give unto you, My Peace which is of
Spirit. Where I am, there you may be also. Those who accept Me as I
Am
have life everlasting, and none is able to pluck them out of my
Father’s hand, out of the Realm of Spirit. Dear friends, we are
destined and predestined to know the Truth of our own Being, and to
know it in the right way. Not for one instant have we ever really been
other than I Am, each is ever perfect and complete in himself,
and in every way; and this is the Reality which is ours to experience
in the Here and Now, since we ourself are the Infinite One,
Spirit, The Living God.
Lesson No. 22
CELESTIAL
HEIGHTS
Spirit is
the Substance of all living things, Spirit
is Life itself. It is Spirit which is Divine Mind and thinking, Spirit
which is Divine Love and loving, Spirit which composes, comprises, and
includes all real life and existence.
When life
is found to be Spirit, thus seen to be
incorruptible and everlasting, it becomes this to us. When love is
found to be Spirit, to be ever pure and unchangeable, it becomes this
to us. When Mind and thinking are found to be in and of Spirit, they
become our only mind and thinking, and we are kept in constant and
uninterrupted happiness, harmony, and peace.
Today a
great deal of thought and time are given in
advancing the idea that the Divine and the human are to be united or
unified, and that the ever Perfect and the ever imperfect are to merge
into one, the Divine so brought into a human existence that they will
coalesce. Nothing could be further from the Truth! Strenuous and active
today the effort to mix or combine Spiritual realities with material
beliefs, instead of attending to the Christ words: repent, turn away,
be still. So persistent the effort to combine the Spiritual with the
material, the idea is even advanced that the human is but another name
for the Divine.
Most
apropos, these summing up words of Jesus, "If
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" If
incorrect teaching regarding one’s identity, life, body, and existence
be accepted as the genuine and true fact of Being, how pitiful and
deplorable the results! If the Truth of one’s identity has not yet been
revealed to him from the Father within, or Spirit Itself, of course he
is not capable of right judgment relative to existence. He does not
understand that the Perfect, the Complete, and Absolute is one-all,
Self-existent
and ever at hand, and any supposition other than this is false, and
never to be accepted. The word human pertains to a kind of being and
existence which is other than the one Creator and one
creation; it concerns itself with the impure, imperfect, and
incomplete, with darkness, sleep, dream, and unreality. The parable of
the Prodigal son presents this situation perfectly, and gives its
answer and solution. It can be seen that he did not succeed in bringing
the things of the Father’s house into the far country, there to live in
peace and harmony, but that finally he was compelled to take leave of
it entirely, in order to have and experience the things of the Kingdom.
Not human
betterment, human development, nor human
advancement are required, as it seems, that the millennium appear in
our midst, but quite to the reverse, for the great necessity is a spiritual
awakening, that
one may enter into the Kingdom of Spirit which has been prepared and
established since the foundation of the world. The notion to bring the
Pure into the impure, the Spiritual into the material, may at first
appear to one as a ladder leading him to better conditions and things;
but should he remain here it will prove a veritable ditch instead, a
place where he will toil and labor without end, and finally shall
utterly fail.
Our life,
mind, body, and existence which are
established in Spirit are already perfect, already complete, already
present, and our only need is spiritual awakening to this
sublime fact and actuality, so that we identify with the Spirit and the
Divine alone. When we do this, automatically we shall come into
possession of fulfillment, the fullness of every good and perfect
thing. Corruption, limitation, disease, and death appear only because
people and nations have not received the Divine Revelation that Spirit
is the only substance, the only Consciousness, Life, Body, and
Existence there is or ever can be.
Only
Divine Revelation or illumination is able to
show one the Celestial Heights, the Kingdom of Spirit, where none gains
peace, health, harmony, or happiness through any kind of physical or
metaphysical effort or practice whatsoever, but all concern themselves
with the fact of the Divine and Spiritual existence to be the one and
only, present and at hand in the Here and Now. The price of admittance
to this Kingdom of present joys and fulfillment is paid as one departs
from creeds and ritualism, incorrect teaching and personal teachers, in
fact, it is paid in full when he leaves all outward forms of worship
and servitude to accept the Light and Truth to be present within
himself, yes, even to be himself. Here in his own Being as
Spirit, Life, God, he finds that fullness and fulfillment for which he
has searched everywhere. Leaving all other gods that we may identify
with and take possession of the one Infinite Substance, which is
Spirit, to be our only Self, life, consciousness, body, and experience,
we have truly entered into the Kingdom of Spirit which has been
prepared for us since the "beginning."
Metaphysics as a mental practice of treating disease
is but a palliative, never can it deliver Divine health, Divine
wholeness, Divine happiness and peace. Regardless how long one remains
in the false belief that Metaphysics is the True Way, he will hunger
and thirst for direct light and revelation, which is given only to
those who look above systems, churches, people, and methods to the
Almighty God closer and nearer than all else. Since our substance is
Spirit, not matter, then it is impossible for anyone to know himself,
and be set free from imperfections and limitations until this supreme
and paramount fact is revealed to him. Nor can such Divine Revelation
take place until one is willing to leave the imperfect for the Perfect,
the intellect for the heart, the ways and means of the personal for
identification with that "I" which is the all-inclusive and perfect
Self.
Never can
Truth be known except through divine
Revelation. Revelation is indeed the Truth which sets us free, even as
is promised, "And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth (spiritual
awakening, or Divine Revelation) shall make you free." Only Revelation
is the fulfillment of all our desires and questionings. Revelation or
divine illumination comes to those who are spiritually prepared for it,
whose thoughts are not intellectual, but spiritual, whose heart is ever
open to fuller knowledge of the Real, the Perfect, and the Everlasting.
Revelation or illumination is Spiritual knowing, immediate
understanding, and freedom.
Today it
is imperative that we turn away from all
palliative remedies called physical or metaphysical to perceive that
which is supreme, not because it is higher, or even the highest, not
because it is above and beyond all else, but because it is the all
and the only
of Life and existence, and ever has been. When sufficient Truth is
revealed to you, you will cease attempting to purify your mind,
thought, body, or world, and once and for all you will put an end to
what has been called "doing one’s mental work." No amount of meditation
or mental work will ever deliver to you your perfect Mind, body, and
existence. Permanent deliverance from impurities, imperfections, and
limitations shall follow as one lets go all claim to any kind of a
mind, life, body, or existence of his own, and accepts the one infinite
Substance, which is Divine Life, consciousness, body, and existence, to
include all there is of him, and he to be This, and none else.
Personal
demonstration, personal healing and
regeneration shall cease to be practiced when, like Jesus, we accept
the Father within, or the Divine Revelation of spirit, to be our
All-sufficiency, the one and only Way to our perfect Self, body, and
existence. The Spiritual awakening already in our midst shall supersede
or transcend all mental practices and systems, everything that has to
do with mental labor, mental warfare, mental demonstration, in their
attempts to heal human minds and bodies, and to spiritualize a
so-called human existence.
Labor,
strife, effort, work, are all included in the
"six days," or six thousand years wherein "thou shall labor, and do thy
work:" but inevitably the seventh day appears, "wherein thou shall not
do any work." This seventh day is when we cease thinking from the basis
that we are mankind or personal individuals supposed to overcome evil
and demonstrate our good here in a human existence, and let ourselves
be illumined from within, and from the within receive the Truth and
Light that there is but one "I," one
Substance-Life-Intelligence-Existence, which is at hand, perfect and
complete, without need of demonstration or attainment, and which is our
true and only Being and existence. Acting from this basis, we shall end
the six days, or period of work, work, work, and find the everlasting
Peace and Joy to be at hand, and in the Here and Now.
"He that
believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live." Who is "Me?" Not an outside God, nor an outside Divine
Mind, nor Jesus as some supernatural being. Although it was Jesus who
spoke these words, he did not refer to himself as a man, a teacher, or
healer, but he spoke as Divine Being, Divine Life, Divine Selfhood.
Therefore, whosoever believeth in this "Me" to be his own Selfhood,
life, body, and existence, though he were enshrouded in darkness and
sin, yet shall he leave these as a dream, and waken in the Kingdom of
Spirit, where "I" am God, and besides Me there is none else.
"‘I’ am
the real and living Way; no one comes to the
Father except by means of ‘Me.’ If you knew ‘Me’ ye would know my
Father too. You know Him now and have seen Him… He who has seen ‘Me’
has seen the Father… It is the Father who remains ever in Me, who is
performing His own deeds… He who believes in Me will do the very deeds
I do." (Moffatt Trans. John 14:6-10)
"The Understanding Series
Volume 2"
by
Lillian DeWaters
Order in
Adobe PDF eBook form for $4.95
