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Dynamics for Living
Adam and Eve
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[Dynamics for Living]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
THE BIBLE veils in its history the march of man from
innocence and ignorance to a measure of sophistication and
understanding. Over all hovers the divine idea of man, the
perfect-man pattern, the Lord, who is a perpetual source of
inspiration and power for every man.
Allegory
What is stated in the Book of Genesis in the form of
allegory can be reduced to ideas. These ideas can be worked
out by the guidance of mental laws.
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God creates through the action of His mind, and all things
rest on ideas. Divine Mind images its ideas definitely and
in every detail. The idea precedes the fulfillment. Ideas
are productive and bring forth after their kind. They
express themselves under the law of divine imagery.
The Book of Genesis gives two accounts of the creation of
man; the first is that of the creation by Elohim and the
second is that of the creation by Jehovah. The first act of
mind is the formation of the idea, and the second is the
expression of that idea. Elohim or God-Mind creates a
Spiritual Man, in whom are conceived to be present all the
attributes of his source. Next this Spiritual Man, Jehovah
God, God-Mind identified as I AM, forms man in spiritual
substance, in the "dust of the ground."
Adam
Adam is the first movement of mind in its contact with life
and substance. He represents the generic man, or the whole
human race epitomized in an individual-man idea.
If the ego, or will, which is man, has adhered to wisdom
faithfully and has carried out in its work the plans that
are idealized in wisdom, it has created a harmonious
consciousness. Adam in the Garden of Eden is symbolical of
that consciousness.
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Eve
Eve is love, or feeling, in individual consciousness. The I
AM (wisdom) puts feeling into what it thinks, and so Eve
(feeling) becomes the "mother of all living." Feeling is
Spirit which quickens. Woman symbolizes the soul region of
man and is the mother principle of God in expression. Back
of the woman (feeling) is the pure life essence of God.
Eden
Eden is a pleasant, harmonious, productive state of
consciousness in which are all possibilities of growth.
When man is expressing in harmony with Divine Mind,
bringing forth the qualities of Being in divine order, he
dwells in Eden, or in a state of bliss in a harmonious body.
The "garden" symbolizes the spiritual body in which man
dwells when he brings forth his thoughts after the original
divine ideas. This garden is the substance of God or state
of perfect relation of ideas to Being. The Garden of Eden
is the divine consciousness.
The Fall
Adam in his original creation was in spiritual
illumination. Spirit breathed into him continually the
necessary inspiration and knowledge to give him superior
understanding. But he began eating,
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or appropriating, beliefs in two powers--God and not-God,
or good and evil. The result, so the allegory relates, was
that he fell away from spiritual life and all that it
involves.
Having developed a consciousness apart from his divine
nature, man must "till the ground from which he was taken,"
that is, he must come into a realization of God as the
source of his Being and must express ideas in harmony with
Divine Mind.
Adamic Consciousness
Man is Spirit, absolute and unconditioned; but man forms an
Adamic consciousness into which he breathes the breath of
life; this, in its perfect expression, is the Son of man,
and expression of the divine idea. This Adam is all of what
we term soul, intellect, and body. We are continually at
work with this Adam. We can breathe into his nostrils the
breath of life, inspiring him with the idea of life in all
its unlimited fullness. We can lift up this Adam by
infusing into him these sublime ideas, and in no other way.
Wisdom and love are joined in God, and a perfect balance is
struck in consciousness between knowing and feeling when
man spiritualizes his thoughts.
Man is falling just to the extent that he is ignoring the
living Word in himself. Man must
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keep affirming the living Word; then he will have the
transformed body. Jesus Christ is the Word demonstrated as
perfect man, and through Him we are saved from the fall.
Development
Time is a human invention and acts as a barrier to a
broader conception of creative processes. All attempts to
find a date for the beginning of man are futile. Years are
associated with events, and when the events are past the
years go with them. States of mind make events, and new
states of mind are constantly being formed; consequently
every moment is the beginning of a new creation to the
individual. It is of no practical value to a man to know
that the world has journeyed around the sun six thousand or
six million years since it was formed. The important thing
is to know where man stands in relation to the creative law.
The Bible puts history before us as if we were part of
every event, which we are. The one Mind is moving in its
realm of ideas "over all, and through all, and in all."
The allegory of the Garden of Eden, of the man and the
woman and the serpent, represents the development of ideas
in individual consciousness, not the development of a
planetary system. Creation is the evolution of ideas in
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mind. Creation is the development of individuality; hence
the one object of all creative processes is the making of
man.
In the development of individuality the factors described
in the allegory are active in every one of us at this
moment. The creating is going on right now. The reason why
God created man potentially perfect and then set him the
task of proving it is found in the mysterious process
called self-identification. Man makes himself after the
pattern designed by the Great Architect. In proving his
ability to carry out the divine plan he proves himself
perfect.
The Serpent
Three fundamental factors are at the basis of all
manifestation, namely intelligence, life, and substance.
Divine intelligence reveals perfect ideas as the basis of
existence. Any conception other than this is "eating" or
appropriating thoughts that seem both good and evil. This
conception of opposites leads to all kinds of inharmonies.
It is the serpent, "more subtle than any other wild
creature," that suggests this to man. The serpent
represents life, in which is vibration, color, sound, in
fact all sensation. Sense consciousness is another name for
the serpent. The life idea is manifest in the mighty
lightning chain darting from sky to earth as well as in
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the subtle sensations that sweep through the soul.
Indulgence
The soul (Eve) is attracted by this realm of sensation and
is psychologized by its promises of pleasure. When we
indulge any of the sensations of the flesh for the mere
pleasure that accompanies the indulgence, we are following
the delusive suggestions of the serpent instead of
listening to the word of God. Pain, disease, and finally
death always result from such ignorant transgression of the
divine law. Life is a fundamental factor in all existence.
Without life there could be no existence.
When man fails to master his sensations and gives himself
up to the uncontrolled enjoyment of life, he is losing his
dominion and must suffer the consequences of transgressing
the law. Man should therefore be ever on the alert to
maintain his dominion and mastery over all the ideas of the
mind and sensations of the body. Everything has its use in
the divine economy, and man as the master builder should
ever be seeking to carry out the divine plan.
Wisdom
Wisdom shows us what the law is and where we have fallen
short in our use of it. We are not punished for
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our sins but by them. We establish ruling attitudes of mind
by our daily thoughts. They may or may not be in harmony
with Principle. Our dominant thoughts establish a general
character. What we love or what we hate builds cells of joy
or pain.
Obedience
To be in subjection to the higher Power is the highest goal
of human attainment. The spirit of obedience is the spirit
of love. Love is the most obedient thing in the universe.
It is also the greatest worker and will accomplish more for
our happiness than all other faculties combined. Love is
divine ordinance. It has a balm for every ill.
Disobedience to Spirit is refusal to do right at all
hazards. We all know the right. We do not always do it,
because it seems to foil immediate attainment of the
objective that we seek. We want quick returns.
If you are obedient to Spirit you will not suffer burdens.
You will live in the present, do your highest duty every
day, forget the past, and let the future take care of
itself. To trust Spirit you must know of its guidance by
experience.
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[Dynamics for Living]
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