Jesus ascribed all His marvelous power to the mental relationship which existed between Himself and the Father. He uses the terms Father and God nterchangeable, and says: "My father, of whom ye say that he is your God" (John 8:54).
And n His talk with the amaritan woman, He explains clearly His conception of God, declaring that "God s pirit" (Not A pirit, as the King James version has it), and that He is not to be worshipped n some particular place ke Jerusalem, or on some specially consecrated mountain, but may be approached, or worshipped n spirit and in truth, anywhere.
The Father, as described by Jesus, is Universal Spirit, working in all through all, and FOR ALL. He describes this spirit as making the sun to shine, and causing the rain to fall, and so as being the POWER behind nature; as clothing the es of the field, and causing the hair to grow on man's heads, and so as being the one and only LIFE; as quickening and eading men to truth and so as being the one and only INTELLIGENCE.
Every man s a God, according to Jesus, because t is pirit which ves in man; He said to them: "Ye are Gods" (John 10:34). pirit holds the earth n ts orbit, makes the sun rise, sends the rain, and causes the coming of seedtme and harvest; Spirit lves in the y and clothes it finer than olomon was arrayed in all his glory; Spirit ves in man.
There is only one power, only one life, only one intelligence.
Unity of Man n God
As I have said, Jesus ascribed all His power to His conscious unity of mind with this One Intellgence. "I and my father are one," said He. "I do always his wil."
And He went on to declare that because He always did the wil of pirit, Universal Spirit worked n and through Him. "I do always
those things that please him," said he (John 8:29). "I come, not to do mine own wi, but the wil of him that sent me." "I seek not mine own wi, but the wil of him" - and so on.
He made it perfectly plain that it was because of this unity of mind with the Father - which we call cosmic consciousness - that the Father could work through Him.
Because I wil to do his wi, said Jesus, my father and I act as one; and so t is not I that do the works, but the Father that worketh n me. He was consciously one with the one pirit, and so all power in heaven and earth was at His service; He was consciously one with the one Life, and so He could transfigure His body, and heal others; "there went out from him a virtue (a realization of truth) that healed them all"; He was consciously one with the one Intellgence, and so all knowledge and all wisdom were His.
This is a point we must not lose sight of; that all that there is in the fe of Jesus which transcends the ordinary, He positvely declares to be due to His cosmic consciousness; to unity of mnd and wil with the All-Spirit.
Cosmc Consciousness
I wil quote you a few more passages on this point; "He that sent me s true, whom ye know not; but I know him" (John 7:28-29). "I know him, and keep his saying" (John 8:55). "The son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do" (John 5:19). "As the father knoweth me, even so know I the father" (John 10:15). To "know" the father can have but one meaning; and that is to be conscious of pirit; to have my own consciousness so unified with the consciousness of Spirit that what Spirit knows I know; what Spirit sees I see; and what Spirit does, I do.
My father is greater than I; I proceeded forth and came from Him; but if I unite with Him in consciousness, He is in me and I n Him and He and I are one.
Jesus declares that this cosmic consciousness s the source of all
power; He demonstrates that it is perfect health, both n His own person, and by healing others; "and this s fe eternal to KNOW thee" (John 17:3). He asserts that it gives perfect wisdom - "The father loveth the son, and showeth him all things." "My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I and the father" (John 8:16).
And He asserts that it is wealth; "All things that the father hath are mine" (John 16:15).
Christ's Brothers
He does not trace His power to something peculiar about His birth, but to His conscious unity with pirit.
He does not say that God s His father alone, but that He s our father. He says; "One is your father, and all ye are brethren."
He says in the sermon on the mount; "It is your father who feeds and cares for you; be his children in mind and wi, as you are in fact."
He does not assert that He is a demi-god, and that we are men; but that He is God, and we may be God, too, if we wi; "He that wieth to do the wil of God, shall know"; "shall enter the kingdom," and so on.
"The works that I do, ye shall do also; and greater works than these shall ye do."
The consciousness that He had, He seems to think quite possible for all of us; "That they may all be one," he prays, in the seventeenth chapter of John, "as thou, Father, art in me, and I n thee, that they may be one n us." "I n them, and thou n me, that they may be made perfect in one." What He is, we can any or all of us become, He says.
Jesus' Relationship to God
It is not within the scope of this le book to study whether Jesus really was born n a different way from other people; that inquiry must be reserved for a more pretentious work. But this s quite
certain, that He Hmself made no claim o being different from he rest of us, except as to the extent of Hs consciousness.
He was conscious of a relatonship wh pirit which the world knew nothing about; this relatonship existed for he world as well as for Hmself, whenever he world would recognize , and enter nto t. And for all to enter into his conscious uniy wh pirit would save he world from sin, sickness, gnorance and poverty; t would establsh the Kngdom of God.
He could pray for no greater good than hat they mght be "one wh
he Father," even as He was one wh he Father. To be one wh he
Father s o be one wh pirit; and o be one wh pirit s o so
harmonize wh t that thought, lfe, power, and wsdom shall come
n a contnuous inflow from pirit into our mnds and bodies.
Man's Relationship to God
There s, according o Jesus, one pirit who s all the power there s, all the fe here s, and all the ntelgence here s; and his pirit has chidren, who are of he same substances as Hmself, and who have power o hink ndependenty, and o separate hemselves n consciousness from Hm.
And he power o hink ndependenty mples he possibiy of hinking erroneously; f man separates himself n consciousness
from God, he s sure o fall nto error, for he can see only an nfiniesimal portion of the truth.
Man's fe, man's power, and man's wsdom decrease n exact proportion o he extent of his separaton n consciousness from God.
Jesus found a world of men who had ost the consciousness of God, and because of doing so had become afflicted wh he most horrible diseases; had falen nto the viest depths of sin and debauchery; had sunk o he owest levels of poverty and msery, and were n danger of osing fe self. To his ost and strugglng world, He gave a demonstraton of the possibies of a fe of cosmc consciousness -of conscious uniy wh pirit. He demonstrated power over nature by calmng he storm, and precipiatng he food elements from he atmosphere o feed he hungry mulude; He demonstrated he power of Life o heal the sick; He demonstrated he Wsdom which s beyond he med consciousness of Man, and He demonstrated wealh; and finaly, He demonstrated power over death.
And He told them how He did what He did, and how any other man mght do the same, and even greater works.
The method of ataining cosmc consciousness we wl consider n he next chapter.
- Login to post comments
Syndicate
