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Talks on Truth
Lesson 8
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[Talks on Truth]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Lesson VIII
Obedience
BEFORE THE descent of the Holy Spirit upon us, we live in
the intellect, and our little world is rounded by the
thinking faculty. What our ancestors thought is the pattern
after which we cut our thinking. To anyone who claims a
higher fount of wisdom we say, "Art thou greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his sons, and his cattle?"
2. Thinking is a process in mind. All processes come to an
end. Every thought has its premise, its stage of action as
a reasonable proposition, and its conclusion. So the I AM
that lets the sphere of its existence be encompassed by the
limited thinking faculty, follows the process of the
syllogism; it believes birth, life, and death to be the
major, minor, and conclusion of existence. Instead of
recognizing the power to think as simply a faculty of mind,
it assumes it to be the whole of mind and all of itself.
This identification of the free I AM with its creations
brings about a world of illusion. Instead of accomplishment
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through an equilibrium of faith and works, it sees no way
of reaching the goal except through violent and continued
action. To such, existence is not the joyous dominion over
many obedient powers, but the rebellious slave of one.
3. To be ushered into life, blindly to toil a few years
through its fitful maze, and then to go out in darkness is
surely not the method of wise design. Life must mean more
than this, and it does mean more. Man is the builder, and
to him are given all the materials out of which to
construct the temple in which he dwells. He builds in
wisdom or in ignorance, according to his obedience--his
receptivity to the sphere of intelligence within him.
4. Simon, the first disciple of Jesus, represents a
receptive attitude of mind. Simon means hearing--listening
for the inner voice and obeying it, when it says, "Put out
into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." When
the thinking faculty is obedient and does what it is told,
it is always rewarded with "a great multitude of fishes,"
or new ideas. It is then counted worthy to be a disciple of
the Master and its name is changed to Peter. Faith, the
substance of thought, then becomes the rock upon which the
body temple is built. If you are living in your thinking
faculty intellectually, if you believe in birth and death,
you must come out of that belief; you are not exercising
your rightful dominion, but are subject to error thought.
5. You are Spirit, the Son of God, and your place is at the
right hand of the Father. To realize this is to call down
upon yourself the baptism of the Holy
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Spirit, after which baptism you no longer labor as a
carpenter, or as a fisher, but begin to gather together
your disciples--powers of mind. This gathering together of
your powers is an orderly process, and you will find that
it proceeds right along the lines laid down in Jesus'
choosing of His disciples, as recorded in Matthew 4:18 and
Mark 1:16. Your first power is the hearing faculty, Simon,
and with him is strength, "Andrew his brother." You
discover that hearing gives direction to your thinking
faculty and that obedience increases your power to control
your thoughts and to make your world conform to your ideas.
Then you disentangle the I AM from the thinking faculty;
you take control of the thinking and direct its power
according to your wisdom. But wisdom is of Spirit. "There
is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth
them understanding."
6. After you have separated your I AM from the thinking
faculty, you are no better off than before unless you
recognize that all wisdom is from Spirit. You can get
flashes of understanding at any time, but the clear light
of the Supreme will shine steadily upon you only when you
are obedient and receptive to its monitions. The record
states that Jesus prayed often; that He sought in every way
to do the Father's will, even to suffering the utmost
ignominy in order to carry out the message that He had for
humanity. He always listened for the "inner voice," and was
obedient to it in His meek and lowly work among the
humblest class of men. To do the will of the Father was His
highest aim, because His success
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depended entirely upon knowing that will. "I can of myself
do nothing" and "All authority hath been given unto me in
heaven and on earth" seem to be contradictory statements,
but when carefully analyzed they corroborate the premise
that all wisdom and power come from Spirit--and Spirit is
"given" to man. The highest development of spiritual
discernment sees the I AM possessed of nothing as its own,
but the user of all things that the Father has.
7. The relation between God and man is very similar to that
existing between a co-operative colony and its members. All
that the colony owns is for the use of each member to the
full extent of his ability to use wisely, but he must not
attempt to hoard the belongings of the colony nor claim
them as his exclusive property. To know how to establish
this relation between Father and Son is the object of every
man, for only through its establishment can come happiness.
After the I AM has come into an understanding that it is
given charge of various powers, its first need is to know
how properly to develop those powers. When this knowledge
comes, the I AM must faithfully use all its resources in
forwarding the grand scheme of creation.
8. Here comes up an extremely intricate and interesting
point. Can it rightly be said that man possesses any
powers? We say that we have judgment, love, and so forth,
but is it not true that they belong to God, and are merely
ours to use in the attainment of an object in the plan of
creation, which is not yet revealed by the Father? This
must be the conclusion of a logical consideration of the
matter.
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Man is given dominion over all things, but possession is
not conveyed. Thus you do not possess even your body--it
belongs to God. If it is sick or discordant in any way, the
condition must be in your idea of the body and not in the
real body itself. All of God's creations are perfect; your
body as it appears to Him must also be perfect, and if you
will stand aside and let His Spirit shine through it, you
will see that it is perfect in every part.
9. Some of the most miraculous cures ever made have been
where the healer simply saw perfection in the patient. He
saw with the eye of Spirit that which really exists, and
the shadow conformed to his seeing just to the extent of
his realization of that spiritual reality. The Father lets
you use His substance and intelligence to build shadows
about the real, but that they are shadows you learn by
experience, when you might know by a shorter way. That
shorter way is the way of obedience to Spirit. Obedience
comes from a meek and lowly heart--a heart that is willing
to serve all and sacrifice its mortal pride on the altar of
Truth. Jesus washed His disciples' feet, the most humble
office. On another occasion He told them, "He that is
greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever
shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall
humble himself shall be exalted." This erasing of the
personal man is the short cut into the kingdom of heaven.
It is not a denial of oneself as a "worm of the dust," a
sinner against God, and other misconceptions of the
relation of the I AM to the Father. It is a letting go of
pride, ignorance, selfishness, ambition, and the
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thousand and one dense ideas that make the soul opaque to
the eye of Spirit.
10. A man's burdens are always the things that he has laid
claim to as his personal property, and they are thereby
deprived of the sustaining ability of the All-Powerful.
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." Lay your burdens upon Spirit. Say unto
them, "I let you go gladly." You have no right whatever to
take upon yourself any burden. To do so is to contradict
squarely the universal law of good. There is no such thing
as a burden in God's scheme of creation, and if you are
bearing one, it is because you do not understand who and
what you are and your relation to the great whole.
11. When you carefully sift your burdens you will find that
they arise from some idea of possession. You think, for
instance, that you have dependents who must be provided
with the necessities of life. Your idea of their claim upon
you arises from your belief that they have no other
protector. When you recognize an all-caring Father who
heeds even the sparrow's fall, you relinquish that idea of
your responsibility, and you are relieved. Then through the
mental freedom that your mind recognizes, there flows to
you and to those in whom you are interested greater
resources from unlooked-for directions. We do not abandon
our friends and withdraw all interest in them, but we
recognize their equality with ourselves in the supreme
Mind, and by that recognition they are freed from a mental
dependency with which we have unconsciously bound them.
They begin to
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assert their inherent capacities; they step forth with the
work that Spirit within them has chosen.
12. People who pose before the world as benefactors and
dispensers of charity should rightly be counted enemies of
mankind. He who dispenses charity tickles his own idea of
benevolence, but he is not a friend of the race. Thousands
are held in bondage to the belief that they must be helped,
when the blessing would be to make them see that their
salvation lies in helping themselves. The most prolific
burden producer is the idea that provision must be made for
the needs of the future. Childless persons scrimp and
strive to provide a competency for old age; those with
children pursue the same methods, providing for the future
of their children. This fear of a future day of want has
become a race belief so absorbing that the old, the young,
and the middle-aged are its victims.
13. If you are obedient to Spirit you will not suffer these
burdens to be loaded upon you; 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. By those who have
not learned the guidance of Spirit that experience must be
acquired. God does not require you to follow His leading on
blind trust always. You may look over all creation first
and see the evidence of the invisible intelligence
pervading everything, even your own body. Then from analogy
you can arrive at a solution of the question: Does that
same Spirit pervade man's consciousness? If you decide that
it does, and you have
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made up your mind to cultivate its acquaintance, you may
rest in the assurance that the proof will be forthcoming.
Spirit is modest; its voice is silent in a turmoil of
argument about its existence. It is not found on the
housetops proclaiming its presence. It is Spirit. Spirit is
the omnipotent, silent principle pervading Being. You are
Spirit, and must find yourself before you can communicate
with universal Spirit.
14. The thinking faculty is the gate through which the I AM
comes forth from the invisible to the visible, and it is
through this gate that you must go to get into the presence
of Spirit. Hence, we take words and go to God. We came out
from His presence through that gate, and we must return by
the same way. On the inner side is the Garden of Eden, but
the cherubim stand there, and there is the flaming sword
that turns "every way, to keep the way of the tree of
life." That flaming sword is the inner motive that rules
our thoughts and our acts. It turns every way to guard the
tree of life, because that tree is the precious substance
of the Father.
15. Disobedience to Spirit is refusal to do right at all
hazards. We all know the right, but we do not always do it,
because it seems to foil immediate attainment of the
objective that we seek. We want quick returns, forgetting
that "though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind
exceeding small." We want instantaneous healing of our
diseases, but we are loath to sacrifice the mental habits
that cause them. The mind of the flesh knows that its
existence depends upon keeping the I AM in its bonds, and
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it begs that the discord that its ignorance has produced in
the body may be quickly erased without disturbing its
dominion. Hence the cry goes up from all over the land,
"Heal me! heal me! as Jesus of Nazareth healed those who
came to Him, but don't ask me to change my ideas."
16. Moses stands for the progressive law of the mind
working out its salvation through obedience to Spirit. In
the Egyptian darkness of its mortal state, the mind does
not see its way out, nor indeed can it see, except through
the eye of spiritual perception. Some people mistake
spiritual perception for the reality, and refuse to take
the second step of science, which is organic realization of
the truths perceived in mind. This second step is one of
intricate building, stone by stone, of a living temple in
which Spirit resides forever. No one can undertake this
structure of a spiritual body, until he has covenanted to
follow the directions of Spirit as revealed to him from day
to day. If he depends upon teachers, healers, books, or the
experience of others, he is like the contractor who begins
to build after the design furnished by his architect, and
instead of consulting that design and its author of each
step, looks here and there and everywhere for advice as to
what to do.
17. The image and likeness of our spiritual body is as
thoroughly defined in us as is the tree in the acorn. Does
the acorn consult anything outside of itself as to how it
should bring forth a tree? Certainly not. It simply rests
in Spirit and unfolds from moment to moment as moved by the
impulse within.
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Exactly the same law is operative in bringing forth the God
man. The external, striving, wandering will must stop its
restless seeking without, and repose at the center. It must
be obedient to that center, and learn the language of
Spirit. Moses was forty years a tender of sheep before he
was competent to lead his people out of servitude. He
learned the language of the Father in his hours of solitude
and he knew without doubting when he was called to go
forth. So we all must find the Father consciously in our
own inner temple. We must go there day after day and ask
for guidance. Mere denials and affirmations will not do it.
God is Spirit. Spirit is Mind, and Mind knows. It is not an
abstraction that dwells in a vacuum to be invoked by some
magic formula, but it must be cultivated and communed with
as a child communes with his parents.
18. Thus the reality of living is to live as Jesus of
Nazareth lived--one with the Father. Our ideas should be
what we have realized in and of ourselves, not what we have
learned from books. "He that loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me." We must know
Him as nearer, dearer, and closer in consciousness than
father, mother, wife, husband, or friend. He must be to us
the indwelling love and intelligence that leaps forth at
every word that we speak, every thought that we think. He
is at our right hand and at our left. He is within us and
without us. He dwells in a halo about our head. His thought
vibrates upon the tympanum of our mind, and we
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speak the divine words of health and hope to all worlds.
19. God is our Father-Mother, the one inspiration of all
that we do, of all that we are. Why for a moment ignore
this one All-Power? Why look to the insipid without when
the inspired within forever sparkles with the vintage of
eternal youth, health, wisdom, life?
20. God is. Man is. We are now in the presence of that
eternal Is-ness--Osiris and Isis are now our Father-Mother
as fully as they were the Father-Mother of old Egypt. The
mighty works of the men of antiquity are possible to us
when we acquaint ourselves, as they did, with the power
within. Let us not look abroad for power or for wisdom, but
seek at home. There in the silent recesses of our own soul
we shall find the pearl of great price. The well of living
water must spring up within us. We are His beloved, and
nothing short of His opulence will satisfy us. Let us no
longer stay in a far country and tend swine, but let us
come home to the Father's house. We shall be thrice
welcome. Our life will spring up with new vigor and the
blush of youth will return to our cheeks, when we know that
the eternal fount of life forever bubbles up within our
soul.
21. It is your mission to express all that you can imagine
God to be. Let this be your standard of achievement; never
lower it, nor allow yourself to be belittled by the cry of
sacrilege. You can attain to everything that you can
imagine. If you imagine that it is possible to God, it is
also possible to you. Whatever possibility your mind
conceives, that is for
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you to attain. This is the law; let none belittle himself
or dwarf the Supreme by trying to annul it. "All things
that are mine are thine, and thine are mine."
22. God is, and we are. Let us live in His world--not a
world to be tomorrow, next month, next year, or next
century, but here and now. God's beautiful universe is all
about us, only awaiting our acknowledgment of its presence.
Let us know God and live--live with love and joy, health
and peace, here evermore.
Thou art, O God, the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night
Are but reflections caught from Thee.
Where'er we turn Thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are Thine.
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