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SACRAMENT - 07/13/14

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Peter

Peter
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07/09/2014 06:08

spares us not one individual experience...

In S&H it says "Jesus spares us not one individual experience if we follow his commands faithfully; and all have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed by divine Love."


What is the cup of sorrowful effort? Is the sorrowful effort and redemption similar to the last supper and the morning meal?

What makes the effort sorrowful? I thought "the warfare with onesself is grand" -- and that sorrow was a condition of the human mind.

Is it really sorrowful, or does it just feel that way when your spiritual oil is running low?




 
ConnieTX

ConnieTX
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07/09/2014 07:50

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

Thanks, Peter, I was wondering the same thing. Who wants to drink a cup of sorrow? Yuck!



 
Gary

Gary
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07/09/2014 07:50

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

When we follow the Christ, we face the resistance of mortal beliefs, which we are denying, opposing. And if there is any personal sense in my thought (and there is!), then my relinquishing all personal attachment to anyone or anything will feel painful or perhaps sorrowful at the time. We will be maligned and ridiculed by those we once thought loved us. We may have to stop being with people we once admired or thought friends. It will shake things up in our lives, so be prepared.

But the promise is clear: "that your joy may be full." (John 15:11) We will have built a relationship with God that brings a joy and dominion that nobody and nothing can ever take from us. And until we stand up to whatever is wrong, and take the heat, as Jesus did, we will never gain that joy and dominion. "It is the living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes Jesus 'the resurrection and the life' to all who follow him in deed." (S&H 31).




 
Andrew

Andrew
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07/09/2014 08:02

Re: spares us not one individual experience...


Is it really sorrowful, or does it just feel that way when your spiritual oil is running low?

Jesus was in anguish in Gethsemane, not because his spiritual oil was low, but because he was willing to subject himself to the world's hatred in obedience to his Maker. "Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other people's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ, his spiritual selfhood, never suffered."S&H
In the 1st Edition, "Those who gain the essential points of the science of Life will suffer from the sensual world more than even the primitive prophets and disciples did; but the science of being supports its followers amid shoals and quicksands."
This kind of suffering, the reward of righteousness, burns off the baggage, the pride of life, all false concept of self, etc., to enable the ascension.

Edited by Andrew - 07/09/2014 13:51




 
Andrew

Andrew
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07/09/2014 09:02

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

A hint in this direction - often the most inspired compositions/performances are preceded by the most anguish. Even a good Reader in a church can attest to this.



 
Peter

Peter
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07/09/2014 09:10

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

But what is it that is suffering? Jesus subjected himself to the world's hatred. But, the Christ doesn't suffer, and doesn't suffer if the world hates it. Likewise, those who gain the essential points of Science - is it the "human element" remaining that suffers, until it is destroyed (released?) through suffering? Did Jesus suffer in Gethsamane because he still had false beliefs to work through? S&H paraphrase: "when the human element in him struggled with the divine ..." What was the human element Jesus was struggling with? (perhaps not a useful question, since it's certainly above my level of struggling!)

So, with the cup of sorrowful effort -

is it that when one loves as Jesus loves, one will have no choice but to release false beliefs - and this process will feel sorrowful at times, like you're losing something you think is part of you - until you get beyond that hurdle and see that it was never a part of you - you are redeemed, and the sorrow is no longer sorrow, but joy.




 
Andrew

Andrew
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07/09/2014 16:23

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

is it that when one loves as Jesus loves, one will have no choice but to release false beliefs - and this process will feel sorrowful at times, like you're losing something you think is part of you - until you get beyond that hurdle and see that it was never a part of you - you are redeemed, and the sorrow is no longer sorrow, but joy.

I think so... - distinctly different from the Christian misconception that suffering is somehow righteous in and of itself. "The design of Love is to reform the sinner."S&H - and any self apart from God is sin and must be destroyed through suffering or Science, etc.




 
Gary

Gary
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07/09/2014 21:26

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

Yes, it is Love purifying us.

Perhaps that is why we see this compared to the purification of gold - it happens only in the fiery furnace that burns off the dross.

Yet, to your point, the gold does not feel sorrow at losing the dross.




 
jacob45

jacob45
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07/10/2014 22:18

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

It is mortal´s inability to have that Mind and to be that Mind. We constantly are aware of a physical body with its needs and wants, and of an evil, incomprehensible material world, outside of us. Mind is the only thing that exists. Mind should be the only thing we acknowledge.

Since Mind is All-in-all, this all is consciousness. Mortals suffer from the illsuion of another God, another reality. Or good is real, or evil is real, both cannot be real.

Ax the belief in a mind apart from Mind. Prove Mind as your Mind.

(I just read H. Eustace, hence the wisdom)




 
Sharon

Sharon
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07/11/2014 06:13

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

In citation #7 it says, “Through all the disciples experienced they became more spiritual and understood better what the Master taught.” If we use each experience in the same way, we will rise higher in our understanding of Science, not feel sorrow at losing the dross and be blessed.



 
jacob45

jacob45
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07/11/2014 09:19

Re: spares us not one individual experience...

Eustace has a few good things to say, here are some of my notes:

There is no way that Mind can touch a condition or a thing that actually exists. Mind can only deal with thought. We should reduce everything, how materially and real it may appear, to the basis of consciousness.
Only as consciousness it may be handled.

We are constantly bombarded by "the news" of an evil world, and by the information our senses give us. It is pretty convincing. Overwhelming.

Yet only the divine Self-awareness exists, of perfect harmony and bliss.
".... nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas." Science and Health, p. 331.

The individual experience then is a warfare in our consciousness.