Experiments in a Search For God - Mark Thurston

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of all mankind. Yet we live His pattern and attune ourselves to His consciousness as we do the same thing on a much smaller scale: taking the burden of responsibility for helping others among our circle of friends and acquaintances.

      Experiment: Take upon self a new responsibility for helping some other person. Don’t try to make decisions for that person or do things for him that he needs to be doing, but take on a sense of responsibility for loving and caring about that person, even though it may be a burden (time-wise, energy-wise or otherwise).

       “It is a oneness of mind … which we must all seek … not for self-edification, but that power and strength may emanate from us to others less strong.”

      When asked to list qualities and personality characteristics that we feel we need to change or improve, most of us have no trouble in creating a lengthy list. Yet many people find it very difficult to write a corresponding list of qualities and characteristics they manifest which are in accord with the highest they know. We all have these, even if we aren’t able to express them with regularity, so why is it so hard for many people to create such a list?

      It may be that we realize that in recognizing these qualities we assume a greater responsibility for expressing them more often (i.e., if I don’t admit I have this potential, then I’m not obliged to live up to it). Or, perhaps it is because we have been taught that we need to be humble. Yet we fail to be humble only as we set ourselves apart from the source of the good manifesting through us and claim all the credit for ourselves. It is false humility when we refuse to recognize the ways in which the Spirit is in fact working through us.

      For some that work might be a musical ability that can help lift the consciousness of others; for others, it may be a special ability to be sensitive and listen. We all have these capabilities to channel the qualities of the Spirit. We experience a deeper awareness of the sameness that unites all of life as we find ways of sharing our individual gifts with others who may lack them.

      Experiment: Choose one of your characteristics or abilities which you feel is often able to serve as a channel for the expression of your spiritual ideal. Be sensitive to those who may lack this particular characteristic or ability and find ways of sharing this strength with them.

       “As we enter into meditation, let us visualize the force of harmony and love in action.”

      There is frequent discussion as to just what role, if any, the readings indicate that visualization should play in meditation. Consider the following two passages that seem to give contradictory advice:

       Q-3 … How may we avoid becoming rote in meditation and our daily lives?

       A-3. By visualizing in such manners those meditations that are given out for others, for self; for in aiding others does one aid one’s self most. And unless this is so visualized from without self, it becomes rote. But when made, set, or so experienced by the inner self as being an active, living principle within self, it ceases to become rote.

       Q-4. During meditation I have experienced a strong vibration—the whole body vibrating. Please explain. And have I been able to direct this current to those we are trying to aid?

       A-4. As the vibrations are raised within self through this very visualization, this experiencing of there being those activities, the body—as everyone—is able to send, or direct, or create an environ—to such an one to whom the thought is directed—that is helpful, hopeful, beneficial in every way.

      281-15

       Q-12 … To bring a desired thing or condition into manifestation, is it advisable to visualize it by making a picture or just to hold the idea in prayer and let God produce it in His own way without our making a pattern?

       A-12. The pattern is given thee in the mount. The mount is within thine inner self. To visualize by picturizing is to become idol worshipers. Is this pleasing, with thy conception of thy God that has given, “Have no other gods before me”? The god in self, the God of the universe, then, meets thee in thine inner self. Be patient, and leave it with Him. He knoweth that thou hast need of before ye ask. Visualizing is telling Him how it must look when you have received it. Is that thy conception of an All-Wise, All-Merciful Creator?

      705-2

      The answer to the question of the role of visualization in meditation may lie in the observation that two different functions are being described above. In the first passage (281-15) there is a clearly understood spirit or awareness that the meditator seeks to awaken; and the use of imaginative, visualizing forces is a tool for the desire to awaken that spirit. In the second passage (705-2) the focus is on the condition, form or materialized manifestation that is desired. In this case, the readings strongly recommend that visualization not be used, since the meditator is creating an image or pattern (remember, thoughts are things) and, in a sense, worshiping that image rather than the spirit of love and oneness.

      The experiment for this line from the Search for God text asks you to try the first approach: Get in touch with your desire to awaken a particular spirit (i.e., love or harmony) and then allow the imaginative, visualizing forces to operate in response to that spirit. This experiment is only for the preparatory period of meditation; when you move to your affirmation in meditation, try to hold the spirit of the affirmation in silence without visualizing.

      Experiment: As a preparation for the period of silence in your meditation, take about a minute and recreate in your imagination some way that you have seen love or harmony manifested in the past day (either by yourself or by another person).

      “May our united efforts go through the ages to those yet unborn, regenerating them to that awakening which makes the souls of men safe in the knowledge of Him who made all things …”

      The concept of reincarnation opens up a whole new way in which we can see our life’s work in the earth. We need not feel cut off from the future we are helping to build. We will likely be a part of that new society in another incarnation. This kind of perspective may help us deal with the frustrations of our present society (concerning educational practices, governmental decisions, etc.). For lifetimes we have helped build the world we now experience.

      However, the same principle holds true for the work of healing our society, a work that we are now doing—our efforts to build a culture in which the awareness of spiritual reality serves as a basis. We should consider what kind of life experiences we want in our next incarnation and build toward that now. We build first by changing ourselves, but also by working constructively to create understanding and change in the world at large.

      The readings suggest that we also keep the awareness of the continuity of life, not becoming frustrated if the changes we want fail to come immediately.

       Then, know what thy ideal is; of the spiritual, not of the temporal; not that around which there may be put metes and bounds, but rather put thy ideal in those things that bespeak of the continuity of life; the regeneration of the spiritual body, the revivifying of the temporal body for spiritual purposes, that the seed may go forth even as the Teacher gave, “Sin no more, but present thy body as a living sacrifice; holy, acceptable unto Him, for it is a reasonable service.”

      969-1

      Experiment: Take time to consider and write down the kind of world that you would like to come into for your next incarnation. Select one quality of that futuristic world you imagine and write down ways that you could be helping to build that right now, even though it may not show fruits in this lifetime. Work on manifesting those things that you could be doing now to make the world a better place to experience for your next incarnation.

       Example:

quality:everyone meditates
what I could do now:meditate daily myself; make a special effort to share my books or understandings about meditation with friends who might be interested.
3Know

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