Healing and the Conscious Mind

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We are aware of the regrettable fact that a cult is growing around ACIM (the book A Course in Miracles). That is really too bad, for it does have a number of good teachings. It is largely the common sense (anything but common) of the twelve-step programs. We do not subscribe to the mythical superstition that this book is infallible, incapable of error, or that it was "channeled from God," or "actually" written by Jesus Christ. This is, you might recognize, the same lie that fundies have been telling for years about the Bible; it serves only those who are too lazy, too ignorant, or too weak to think for themselves.

One problem with healing is that people want to assign very simplistic causes to diseases. If disease has a very simple cause, then it also has a very simple solution. Usually, it is something along the lines of "changing your thought-patterns."

This simplism not only "blames" the sick person, instead of extending compassion to her, but it is absurdly simple. It is, in fact, far too simple to account for the facts.

Simplicity, of course, has a very wide place in the philosophy of enlightenment. But intellect also has its proper place. For, historically, many people who never allowed a "negative thought" within a hundred yards of them have suffered from some major illnesses. To claim, or to imply, that all illness is the result of "negative thinking" simply does not tally with the known facts-- of history or of medicine.

The conscious mind is not the "cause" of all illness. It can and does affect the body, but its power is not unlimited. If these "positive thinkers" were right in their simplistic explanations, everyone would have followed them years ago, and there would be no serious health-problems in our world. For mind-based systems of "positive thinking" have been widely available, to everyone, for well over a hundred years, in just recent history.

For an example, the cult called "Christian Science" (founded 1879) ascribes all illness to "wrong" thinking. Yet this is a microcult, with only a few million members worldwide. But if Mary Eddy's theories were correct, if her "practice" actually worked, by now, the cult would have converted the entire world. You could not keep people from converting to the cult! It would be madly, astonishingly popular, and you could not pull people away with bull-dozers. And no Christian Scientist would ever suffer from any major disease; they would all, and always, enjoy perfect health.

But this has not been the real situation "on the ground" (in the real world). These facts show its flaw: There are still practicing Christian Scientists (as members call themselves) who become very sick with major illnesses; indeed, despite continuous practice and programming, some die every year, making the cult lethal for sick people.

The whole idea of "mind-healing," or healing through exclusively positive thinking, underwent a massive revival in the US and the whole world in the 1890's, and millions converted to various related "positive thinking" schools. But many, if not most, remained either sick or poor, or both. Why?

Because they mistook the conscious mind for the Mind of God, the One. The conscious mind is indeed a part of the great Mind that controls the universe-- indeed, creates it. But the conscious mind has never been assigned control of the material cosmos, including the body.

The best that this little mind can do, say the wise Taoist sages, is to learn cooperation with the cosmic Mind of God; and this includes acceptance-- the opposite of trying to change everything, and trying to force the universe to be the way that we personally want it to be. This "grunt and groan" struggle to control the universe produces a person of increased tension, and it amplifies fears.

But the philosophy summed up by Jesus is very different: (He was also a Taoist) in his famous words to God: "Not my will, but thine."

This is also the foundation of the Model Prayer that we should pray always: "Thy will be done."

This "thy will" recognizes a pre-existent will in the great Mind that rules the cosmos. God has plans, and outcomes, that He/She wants, and they are not always what we want. Jesus, unlike "positive thinkers," who want to grab hold of the cosmos and alter it according to their personal wills, saw a distinction between his personal will and the will of God. It is only when we lose this distinction (usually, because we want so powerfully to believe that God's will is always the same as our personal will) that we "fall" for the easy but ineffective "wishful thinking solutions" of "positive thinking."

Yes, positive thinking can change very much in our lives. It is wonderfully superior to negative thinking. But, as human beings, we have limits regarding our control of the cosmos, and this is the one fact that extremists of "positive thinking" do not want to recognize:

In the end, the cosmos, including our births (we had nothing to do with them, as the conscious mind that now exists, except peripherally) and our deaths, are not controlled by us personally. Where was "your" mind when the sperm first entered the egg, and formed your current body? No, this was not controlled by you, but by Nature (symbolized by the ancient Christians as the Goddess Sophia).

Our only task is to use these lives to learn to cooperate with Sophia, our "heavenly Mother," and with Love, our "Father." So, we do not have strictly to regulate each and every thought, always fleeing from the "demons" of negative thinking. For this is how "positive thinking" can increase the "demons" of fear.

Instead, we follow the words of Jesus' most "Taoistic" sermon, the famous Sermon on the Mount, and live like the birds and the flowers, who know, and need/want to know, nothing about "positive thinking."

We can then simply relax and trust, "going with the Flow." When Jesus said his famous words, "Lest ye be as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom," the Greek word translated "little children" means literally "nursing infants"-- another group of minds that knows nothing about control or "positive thinking."

This Taoist life of full trust (faith) is far better, for it is God-dependent and not egocentric or human-dependent. Human beings have tried, metaphysically, for thousands of years to control the cosmos with their conscious minds; the idea goes way back to ancient Greece; it was not invented by the "modern cult" of Christian Science. (Similar ideas were also found in ancient India.)

The key, for us, is to find the courage to dare to trust. For, deep down, many of us distrust the universe. We might even distrust Love. For we have never found any solid evidence of a "God" "out there," in the universe.

This is simply because there is no God in the universe. That is, there is no "exterior" God. God does not exist in the universe. But, as Mind, the universe exists in Him/Her. This is the beautiful and glorious discovery of the mystic, and it frees us from all desperate illusions and delusions.

Mind alone is Reality, so the mystics called God "Reality." This is one meaning of Jesus' famous words, "You will know the truth [reality], and the truth [reality] will set you free." (Jn. 8:32) Reality, the truth, is God in the world, and in the heartmind. It alone can free us from desperate illusions, bathing us in the Light of sweet, saving Love.

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Live Like the Birds and Flowers

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In one of the most famous sermons in the history of spirituality, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus becomes very Taoistic. He commands his followers not to worry, fret, fear, or analyze too much. Even too much planning can harm one's spirituality; it can do violence to one's faith.

In another text, Jesus uttered the famous words, "Lest ye be as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom." But the word in the original ancient Greek that is rendered "little children" does not mean four-year-old toddlers. The original word used here meant "nursing infants." So, he was implying that we should completely relax and go with the Flow of our heavenly (interior) Parents-- God, our FatherMother.

In both recommendations, Jesus was suggesting the startling reality that we try to let go of control-- in the common vernacular, "Let go and let God."

In our everyday lives, we often, and almost always, try to control too much. We try to control other adults, or to influence them. We try to control events and outcomes. We try to control our everythought, through stricter and stricter laws. We are always strangled by this (usually) futile drive to control. If we let go of rigid controls, we feel as if we are in "free fall," and are about to crash!

But Jesus recommends trust in the Mind that rules the universe. We will not "crash," he implies, but will fulfill the "will of God." If we let go of agitated and strict control, we will perform, spontaneously, the desires of Love (the "will of God.")

We simply cannot live exactly as do birds and flowers. This literalism is an extreme that would lead us to absurdity. But we can learn from all three examples-- birds, flowers, and nursing infants. What valuable principle can we learn?

Perhaps the essence of Taoism is this one attitude-- letting go of all control, including controlling words and behaviors, and instead, relaxing effortlessly into the great Mind ("Tao") that already regulates the entire cosmos, including all details. Instead of the complex art of control, we must learn the simpler art-- still challenging-- of trust.

It, this Mind, ran the cosmos just fine before we came along; it can and does operate just fine without our personal input.

Still, we want to imitate Jesus and the other mysticsaints and masterteachers: We want to allow Love to act and speak through us whenever and however possible. For the great Souls of our planet have not lived exactly like birds or flowers; but neither have they tried to grasp control of every situation. Instead, through meditative detachment, they worked to create a creative, productive balance in their lives.

We must not expect too much of ourselves. The human psyche probably cannot move into a control-fre state overnight; usually, it has gradually, incrementally, to grow into it, for this is an entirely new way of being, and of relating. And when we first let go of control, our first response is likely to be fear, for that is the human reaction. As we allow our spiritual nature to "take over," we outgrow the counterproductive response of fear, and come to love the Mind that moves within and through us as Love Itself.
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The Sermon on the Mount, Parts XXVIII and XXIX of XL

The Sermon on the Mount, Part XXVIII of XL
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TEXT: Continuing with Matthew 6:

26. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?

COMMENTARY: This is perhaps the "least practical," and most "Taoist" aspects of the Sermon. For Jesus dares recommend unqualified, thought-free faith, or trust, in the cosmic Mind behind creation, and deep within your own mind. To live, literally, just like the birds would be to live in an upside-down bowl of grass in a tree, and Jesus does not ask this of anyone. But one aspect of life that we can and should learn from Sister Bird is how she lives so thoughtfree, and thus, care-freely.
She never worries, never lives in constant fear of death. Instead, she applies each moment to productivity and survival. She does not gather great quantities of food or other necessities, and Jesus also recommended against this. In fact, her mind is so very simple that it is "thoughtfree." This condition or state is the one for which experienced meditators search the mind, for it is utter stillness, utter tranquility.
So, Jesus' intent was that we live every day, or at least, portions of every day, in thoughtfree Mind, and in complete trust of the universal
Mind-- neither questioning, demanding, nor worrying.


The Sermon on the Mount, Part XXIX of XL
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TEXT:

28. And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?

COMMENTARY: Some inquire about Jesus and the simplicity of
the trust (faith) that he recommends. For example, they say, no one can live with the utter simplicity and the thoughtfree state of birdmind.

And it is impossible practically to live with a "flowermind"! And perhaps they are right. But if we cannot live as the birds, our challenge is made even greater by his recommendation that we live as "lilies of the field." So, the implication is, we must strive to move beyond even the birds in our thoughtfree simplicity. Is the person of Love's ideal a catatonic? No, for when she successfully becomes thoughtfree, a greater Mind, the cosmic Spirit, will begin to move, speak, think, and act through her. She will be as Its marionette.

It/She/He will guide her thoughts, words, and actions. And the more that she relaxes into Its guidance, and surrenders to It, the more that this profound Lovemind will "use her" to express Its creativity, brilliant intelligence, and Love. So, the enlightened being of Love PLAYS her way through life. This is an acronym for: Permits, Lets, Allows, Yields, and Surrenders. She renounces all illusion of any personal control of her life, and relaxes into the cosmic Flow. She does watch her life, to make sure that she always responds with a blend of noninjury (ahimsa) and Love; she dare not be careless. But she lets go of rigid control and micromanagement of her life. For "her" life is no longer "hers"; she belongs to Love!

Tao

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Since you showed some interest in the Way of Taoism, thought a little follow-up might be nice:

Tao (pronounced "dow") is an indefinable, great, and mysterious Power or Mind that runs and controls the cosmos. Tao is manifested in pattern. Designs on butterfly-wings and tortoise-shells are two of many, many examples.

This same Tao is also manifest as the activities of the physical body, especially in natural nanotech: The Tao transforms dirt, water, and sunlight into fruits and vegetables, and then, in yet another nanotech "miracle," transforms these foods into your physical body.

We see Tao in action every day, in the beating of your heart and the rising of the sun. So, belief in this Power does not require "blind faith."

The Taoist, or Taoist mystic, is the person who, on a practical level, develops trust in this unseen Power. In the West, this is "faith." Jesus taught pure Taoism when he told his disciples, in Matthew, chapter 5, to live like birds and flowers -- without worry, fretting, or fear.

The Taoist's main jewel is the absence of all personal desire. She wants many things, but they are all what Love wants. She does not eliminate all desire, but only all personal desire. This gives the famous Taoist tranquility, and guarantees the absence of greed. Like the cosmic Lovemind of many other systems of mysticism, the Tao can work only through a mind that is still and quiet, as in meditation, and a mind that
is not continually troubled with, stuffed with, personal desires.

Also, believing in this Power, the Taoist gives up all control, or attempts to control, the activities of others, or the outcome of her life. She must control the car, or the chainsaw, of course. But she does not control the world; even the control of her own body she gives up to the mysterious Power of Tao. This greatly lessens anxiety, increasing serenity.

Instead of grasping control, she seeks to become a "vessel" or "instrument" of Tao, or the great Mind. In terms of other forms of mysticism, she becomes a tool of Love. Like Jesus, her longterm goal is to become an "incarnation of God (Love)."

Just a few ideas to think about, from an aspiring Taoist!:)
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