Lesson 2
BEING'S PERFECT IDEA
Charles Fillmore
Christian Healing
1. The foundation of our religion is Spirit, and there must be a science of
Truth. The science of Truth is God thinking out creation. God is the original
Mind in which all real ideas exist. The one original Mind creates by thought.
This is stated in the first chapter of John:
2. In the beginning was the Word [Logos--thought-word], and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things
were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been
made.
3. Eadie's Biblical Cyclopedia says: "The term Logos means thought expressed,
either as an idea in mind or as vocal speech."
4. An understanding of the Logos reveals to us the law under which all things
are brought forth--the law of mind action. Creation takes place through the
operation of the Logos. God is thinking the universe into manifestation right
now. Even He cannot create without law. The law of the divine creation is the
order and harmony of perfect thought.
5. God-Mind expresses its thoughts so perfectly that there is no occasion for
change, hence all prayers and supplications for the change of God's will to
conform to human desires are futile. God does not change His mind, or trim His
thought, to meet the conflicting opinions of mankind. Understanding the
perfection of God thoughts, man must conform to them; so conforming, he will
discover that there is never necessity for any change of the will of God in
regard to human affairs.
6. A key to God-Mind is with everyone--it is the action of the individual
mind. Man is created the "image" and "likeness" of God; man is therefore a phase
of God-Mind, and his mind must act like the original Mind. Study your own mind,
and through it you will find God-Mind. In no other way can you get a complete
understanding of yourself, of the universe, and of the law under which it is
being brought forth. When you see the Creator thinking out His universe as the
mathematician thinks out his problem, you will understand the necessity for the
very apparent effort that nature makes to express itself; you will also
understand why the impulse for higher things keeps welling up within your soul.
God-Mind is living, acting thoughts. God-Mind is thinking in you; it is pushing
your mind to grasp true ideas and carry them into expression.
7. It is therefore true, in logic and in inspiration, that man and the
universe are within God-Mind as living, acting thoughts. God-Mind is giving
itself to its creations, and those creations thus are evolving an independence
that has the power to cooperate with, or to oppose, the original God will. It is
then of vital importance to study the mind and understand its laws, because the
starting point of every form in the universe is an idea.
8. Every man asks the question at some time, "What am I?" God answers:
"Spiritually you are My idea of Myself as I see Myself in the ideal; physically
you are the law of My mind executing that idea." "Great is the mystery of
godliness," said Paul. A little learning is a dangerous thing in the study of
Being. To separate oneself from the whole and then attempt to find out the great
mystery is like dissecting inanimate flesh to find the source of life.
9. If you would know the mystery of Being, see yourself in Being. Know
yourself as an integral idea in Divine Mind, and all other ideas will recognize
you as their fellow worker. Throw yourself out of the Holy Trinity and you
become an onlooker. Throw yourself into the Trinity and you become its avenue of
expression. The Trinity is known commonly as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;
metaphysically it is known as mind, idea, expression. These three are one. Each
sees itself as including the other two, yet in creation separate. Jesus, the
type man, placed Himself in the Godhead, and said: "He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father." But, recognizing the supremacy of spiritual Principle, which
He was demonstrating, He said: "The Father is greater than I."
10. Reducing the Trinity to simple numbers takes away much of its mystery.
When we say that there is one Being with three attitudes of mind, we have stated
in plain terms all that is involved in the intricate theological doctrine of the
Trinity. The priesthood has always found it profitable to make complex that
which is simple. When religion becomes an industry it has its trade secrets, and
to the uninitiated they seem very great. Modern investigation of the character
of the mind is taking away all the mysteries of Egyptian, Hindu, Hebrew, and
many other religious and mystical systems of the past. Advocates of these
systems are attempting to perpetuate their so-called secret knowledge through
the occult societies springing up on every side in our day, but they meet with
indifferent success. The modern Truth seeker takes very little on trust. Unless
the claimant to occult lore can demonstrate his power in the world of affairs,
people are suspicious of him. Religious awe for the priesthood, which is
prevalent in Oriental countries, is lacking in the majority of Western people.
In India, a yellow-robed holy man is regarded with reverence by both adults and
children; in this country adults stare and small boys throw stones until he
seeks the protection of the police. This seems irreverent, almost heathenish,
yet it is the expression of an innate repudiation of everything that seeks to
establish itself on any other foundation than that of practical demonstration.
11. The mind of God is Spirit, soul, body; that is, mind, idea, expression.
The mind of man is Spirit, soul, body--not separate from God-Mind, but existing
in it and making it manifest in an identity peculiar to the individual. Every
man is building into his consciousness the three departments of God-Mind, and
his success in the process is evidenced by the harmony, in his consciousness, of
Spirit, soul, and body. If he is all body, he is but one-third expressed. If to
body he has added soul, he is two-thirds man, and if to these two he is adding
Spirit, he is on the way to the perfect manhood that God designed. Man has
neither Spirit, soul, nor body of his own--he has identity only. He can say,
"I." He uses God Spirit, God soul, and God body, as his "I" elects. If he uses
them with the idea that they belong to him, he develops selfishness, which
limits his capacity and dwarfs his product.
12. In his right relation, man is the inlet and the outlet of an
everywhere-present life, substance, and intelligence. When his "I" recognizes
this fact and adjusts itself to the invisible expressions of the one Mind, man's
mind becomes harmonious; his life, vigorous and perpetual; his body, healthy. It
is imperative that the individual understand this relation in order to grow
naturally. It must not only be understood as an abstract proposition, but it is
necessary that he blend his life consciously with God life, his intelligence
with God intelligence, and his body with the "Lord's body." Conscious
identification must prevail in the whole man before he can be in right relation.
This involves not only a recognition of the universal intelligence, life, and
substance, but also their various combinations in man's consciousness. These
combinations are, in the individual world, dependent for perfect expression upon
man's recognition of and his loyalty to his origin--God-Mind. Man is in God-Mind
as a perfect idea. God-Mind is constantly trying to express in every man its
perfect idea, the real and only man.
13. The perfect-man idea in God-Mind is known under various names in the many
religious systems. The Krishna of the Hindu is the same as the Messiah of the
Hebrews. All the great religions of the world are founded upon spiritual
science, but not all of that science is understood by their followers. The
Hebrews had been told again and again, by the spiritually wise, that a Messiah,
or Christ man, would be born in their midst, but when He came they did not
recognize Him, because of their lack of understanding. They understood only the
letter of their religion. A similar lack of understanding prevails generally
today. The Christ man, or perfect idea of God-Mind, is now being expressed and
demonstrated by men and women as never before in the history of the race. Those
who claim to be followers of the true religion should beware of putting the
perfect-man idea out of their synagogues as the Jews put out Jesus Christ. The
ancient Pharisees asked Jesus: "By what authority doest thou these things?"
Modern Pharisees are repeating the same question. The substance of Jesus' answer
was: "By their fruits ye shall know them." (Read Mt. 21:23-46.)
14. This perfect-idea-of-God man is your true self. God-Mind is, under the
law of thought, constantly seeking to release its perfection in you. It is your
spirit, and when you ask for its guidance and place yourself, by prayer and
affirmation, in mental touch with it, there is a great increase in its
manifestation in your life. It has back of it all the powers of Being, and there
is nothing that it cannot do if you give it full sway and make your thought
strong enough to express the great forces that it is seeking to express in you.
15. A most important part of the law of mind action is the fact of
thought-unity. It is absolutely necessary to understand the nature of this fact
before one can demonstrate the power of the superconscious mind. Among our
associates, we like and are attracted to those who understand and sympathize
with our thoughts. The same law holds good in Divine Mind--its thoughts are
drawn to and find expression in the minds of those who raise themselves to its
thought standard. This means that we must think of ourselves as God thinks of
us, in order to appreciate and to receive His thoughts and to bring forth the
fruits. If you think of yourself as anything less than the perfect child of the
perfect Parent, you lower the thought standard of your mind and cut off the
influx of thought from Divine Mind. Jesus referred to this law when He said: "Ye
therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
16. When we go forth in the understanding of man's perfect nature, we find a
new state of consciousness forming in us; we think and do many things not
according to the established custom, and the old consciousness rises up and
asks: "By what authority?" We have so long looked for man-made authority in
religious matters that we feel that we are treading on dangerous ground if we
dare to think beyond prescribed doctrines. Right here we should appeal to the
supreme reason of Spirit and proclaim what we perceive as the highest truth,
regardless of precedent or tradition, mental ignorance or physical limitation: I
AM is the "image of God," the "only begotten Son" (the expressed, or pressed
out, Mind) of the Most High. This is our true estate, and we shall never realize
it until we enter into it in mind, because there it is, and nowhere else.
17. Only through the superconscious mind can we behold and commune with God.
"No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of
the Father, he hath declared him." It is taught that Jesus was exclusively the
"only begotten Son," but He Himself said: "Is it not written in your law, 'I
said, Ye are gods'?" He proclaimed the unity of all men in the Father. "I am the
light of the world." "Ye are the light of the world." Paul says, "As many as are
led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." We are "heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ."
18. In this matter of sonship is one important point that we should not
overlook; that point is the difference between those who perceive their sonship
as a possibility, and those who have demonstrated it in their lives. "Ye must be
born anew," was the proclamation of Jesus. The first birth is the human--the
self-consciousness of man as an intellectual and physical being; the second
birth, the being "born anew," is the transformation and translation of the human
to a higher plane of consciousness as the son of God.
19. The second birth is that in which we "put on Christ." It is a process of
mental adjustment and body transmutation that takes place right here on earth.
"Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," is an epitome of a
mental and physical change that may require years to work out. But all men must
go through this change before they can enter into eternal life and be as Jesus
Christ is.
20. This being "born anew," or "born from above," is not a miraculous change
that takes place in man; it is the establishment in his consciousness of that
which has always existed as the perfect-man idea in Divine Mind. God created man
in His "image" and "likeness." God being Spirit, the man that He creates is
spiritual. It follows as a logical sequence that man, on the positive,
formative, creative side of his nature, is the direct emanation of his Maker;
that he is just like his Maker; that he is endowed with creative power, and that
his very being is involved in God-Mind which he is releasing by his creative
thought. It is to this spiritual man that the Father says: "All things that are
mine are thine."
21. Understanding of the status of all men in Divine Mind gives us a new
light upon the life of Jesus of Nazareth and makes plain many of His seemingly
mysterious statements. This spiritual consciousness, or Christ Mind, was
quickened in Him, and through it He realized His relation to First Cause. When
asked to show the Father, whom He constantly talked to as if He were personally
present, He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." His personality
had been merged into the universal. The mind of Being and the thought of Being
were joined, and there was no consciousness of separation or apartness.
22. Everything about man presages the higher man. Foremost of these
prophesies is the almost universal desire for the freedom that spiritual life
promises, freedom from material limitations. The immortal perception spurs man
on to invent mechanical devices that will carry him above limitations. For
example, he flies by means external. In his spiritual nature he is provided with
the ability to overcome gravity; when this power is developed, it will be common
to see men and women passing to and fro in the air, without wings or mechanical
appliances of any description.
23. The human organism has a world of latent energies waiting to be brought
into manifestation. Distributed throughout the body are many nerve centers whose
offices are as yet but vaguely understood. In the New Testament, which is a work
on spiritual physiology, these centers are referred to as "cities" and "rooms."
The "upper room" is the very top of the head. Jesus was in this "upper room" of
His mind when Nicodemus came to see Him "by night"--meaning the ignorance of
sense consciousness. It was in this "upper room" that the followers of Jesus
prayed until the Holy Spirit came upon them. The superconsciousness, or Christ
Mind, finds its first entrance into the natural mind through this higher brain
center. By thought, speech, and deed this Christ Mind is brought into
manifestation. The new birth is symbolically described in the history of Jesus.
24. "Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to
see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye
hear, and heard them not."
Lesson Two
Statements For The Realization Of The Son Of
God
(To be used in connection with Lesson Two)
1. I am the son of God, and the Spirit of the Most High dwells in me.
2. I am the only begotten son, dwelling in the bosom of the Father.
3. I am the lord of my mind, and the ruler of all its thought people.
4. I am the Christ of God.
5. Through Christ I have dominion over my every thought and word.
6. I am the beloved son in whom the Father is well pleased.
7. Of a truth I am the son of God.
8. All that the Father has is mine.
9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
10. I and my Father are one.
11. My highest ideal is a perfect man.
12. My next highest ideal is that I am that perfect man.
13. I am the image and likeness of God, in whom is my perfection.
14. It is written in the law of the Lord, "Ye are gods, and . . . sons of the
Most High."
15. These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.
