What About Jesus?

What does Science of Mind say about Jesus The Christ?

The Science of Mind philosophy holds that God has sent many teachers for many cultures and eras. Some of these great teachers have earned the designation of Kristos, which in ancient Greek meant the annointed one. We translate this to Christ. These great messengers of God have taught a thread of Truth that runs through every great religion; when dogma, creeds and customs are removed.

Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ that most of us are familiar with, but I believe that there have been others long ago. Many believe that Lord Krishna was the Christ of the Hindus, while Zarathrusta was the Christ of the Avesta or Zoorastrian religion (the native religion of Persia). Prince Siddartha, The Buddha, was certainly a Christ, indeed the term Buddha means one who has achieved true enlightenment or annointing. Used in this way, the term "Christ" is not exclusive to Christianity or those who follow the teachings of Jesus The Christ.

Christians are alone in the entire world in believing that their teacher is the ONLY son of God and that Jesus and God are one and the rest of us are not! Every other religion accepts that there are many paths to God; they may feel that their faith is the best for them but they do not feel that God spoke only once to one person.

Science of Mind regards Jesus as the Master Teacher, the Christ for our time and culture. Let's be clear about this point. Christ is not a man or woman; Christhood is a state of being, a consciousness so exalted, so enlightened that it achieves unity with the Mind of God (the Father and I are One). In this state of being, the human who achieves Kristos literally experiences God on a very personal and unbelievably powerful way. The at-one-ment has been achieved and a Christed person's word is the Word of God. That is what gave Jesus the power to heal, to create wine from water, to raise the dead. His Word was THE WORD.

Was this Christ consciousness unique to the man called Jesus of Nazareth? Many say yes, however we of Science of Mind hold that every one of us is capable of achieving the Christ state - we are all Christs in training - some further ahead while others are just beginning.

Was Jesus the literal Son of God? Yes, and so are every single one of us the literal daughters and sons of God. We believe that Jesus the man was fully human and became the Christ after many trials and much study. We do not confuse Jesus the man with Jesus The Christ. His teaching revolutionized our whole way of looking at our world, our life and our relationship with God.

Jesus The Christ revolutionized our understanding of God and mankind's relationship to Him, made love the Law of our lives and taught us that God is everywhere present; including in us.

We believe that Jesus was Divine and so are we. We are each an expression of God. We are an experience that God is having as us. We believe that everything that is now, ever was or ever will be is made by and of God. We believe that God operates through us for our Good through Spiritual Law, the most important of which is Cause and Effect. Just as there are physical laws, such as gravity, that can be counted upon to operate in the same way in all cases - so there are spiritual laws that govern the spiritual realm just as surely as physical law governs the physical realm.

Jesus The Christ used these Spiritual Laws to teach, to heal, to work what we call miracles. We are capable of the same use of the Law if we are willing to devote our lives totally to their mastery as did the Master, Jesus.

What State Are You In?

What state are you in? No, not California or Florida but what mental and spiritual state of mind are you in? Do you realize that your state of mind right now is creating your life experience tomorrow and the day after and after? It's true, the state of mind in which you habitually find yourself determines the course of your life. You are the creator of your own personal reality.

The Bible speaks in Matthew of "In my Father's house are many rooms - if it were not so, would I not have told you so? I go to prepare a room for you." (sometimes "rooms" is erroneously translated as mansions). The rooms that Jesus is speaking of are not in the next world, they are in this one. They are your states of mind. Your mental state is like a room that you inhabit in your mind. It can be a room of plenty or a room of poverty. It can be a room of joy or one of sorrow. You can be in the room of struggle or the one of ease and grace, the room of spiritual peace or the one of the ego that knows not God. The outward facts or circumstances of your life are the residue of your past states!

There are thousands of mental rooms that we may inhabit. You hold the key. No one makes you rent out space in your mind to poverty, negativity, sorrow or illness. You make the choice to believe in these things or to deny the truth of their existance and therefore move out of that mental state or "room" in your mind. The cure for poverty is not more money - it is to think abundantly regardless of your bank account. The cure for illness is not only medicine but a belief that regardless of current facts, health is your natural state.

What you focus on, what you think about, what you speak about, what you expect to happen will happen. This is the operation of Divine Law. We call this Law the Law of Cause and Effect. All things begin with Cause, in this case, your thinking - your beliefs. The experiences of your life are the Effects of your beliefs, thoughts, words and actions. It is that simple.

Want to change your life? Stop thinking about what you fear, what you do not want, about all the bad that has happened to you or that you have done to others. Put you mind on what you want, who you want to be - your best self. Expect the best and watch it begin to appear in your life.

God is not your parent - God is your Creator and there is a big difference. God loves you as She loves Herself but She gave you free will that you might learn and grow as a soul and a human. You have the Divine Right to live in the Dark or the Light - it is your choice and God will not interfere. You will have to live with the consequences of your choice, so choose well!

If you want to change your life, change the way you think, speak and act. Change comes only at the level of Cause and you are the Cause of your life. Trying to change your life by fiddling with the physical facts of your life (new job, new city, new spouse) is like trying to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. You are fiddling with Effects and only a change in Cause can create real change.

What state are you in? Imagine yourself as an airplane. Do you fly through sunlit skies of bright blue or do you constantly scud through thick clouds and storms? Change your altitude and come into the sunshine. Change your attitude and change your life!

Living the Great Life!

We all want to feel like we are living our life - the life we were meant to live. So often people tell me that they feel that they are living someone else's life, the one their parents wanted them to live or the life a spouse wants you to live. Life just doesn't feel right - there just isn't that feeling of contentment and rightness that you get when you are on "your Divine Path", as some call it.

How do we get on our Divine Path? I believe that is the central question for most people. The first thing we must do is to take control of our life and stop drifting. We are either rowing or drifting in life and so many of us just drift, taking whatever floats by and accepting it as "our lot in life". This is a recipe for a life of victimhood. No one needs to live this way and no one should! God did not create you to live a life of lack, sadness, tragedy and victimhood. These are a result of your thinking, choices or inaction. You are the master of your life and the captain of your soul.

To take control of your life you must first decide what you want your life to look like. What do you want? How do you want to live? Where do you want to live? What do you want to do for a living? What kind of a love life or partnership do you want? What style of life are you comfortable with? (beer and bowling or fine wine and the theatre, for example). Remember, there is no right or wrong here - it is your life and if you like the simple life - live it! If you like the life of culture and the finer things - that's fine too! Make up your mind what really feels good for you, what fits you!

Now that we have a mental picture of the life we want to live we are ready to take the first step.

1. Forget all about your past mistakes, your failures and your "sins" (errors). They have no place in your new life. You cannot put new wine into old wineskins as Scripture puts it. You cannot build a house on sand, you must have a firm foundation and that foundation has to be the knowlege that you are exactly where you are supposed to be at this moment and exactly who you are supposed to be. God loves you just for who you are, no matter how often you have stumbled.

2. Now begin to focus a majority of your thinking and visualizing on your new life. What does it look like, what kind of home do you have, who are you sharing life with, what work, if any, do you do, what do you do for fun? Live in the life you want as if it were already a fact. Yes, you must take care of your current business and life - you know how to do this on autopilot by this time, I am sure! Put your emphasis and your imagination on building your new life and then live in it. Move into the new life. Live in the end not the future. Ignore the current facts - they are nothing but the debris of your old thinking!

3. Act as if you were already in this new life. That may mean that you will have to change. You cannot live a different life without becoming a different person from the inside out. If you want to move from simplicity and modest means to wealth and culture, then the friends will probably have to change, you will dress differently and begin to enjoy as much of the new life as circumstances allow. To the extent that your current budget allows, begin to live this new life. Works the same way if you want to go the other way. You must be the person you want to be before the life you want shows up!

4. Do not concern yourself with how this new life will happen. Not your job, that is what God is for. If you do your part and get a clear picture in your mind of what your perfect life is and begin to change from the inside out to that person that lives that life, God will send the opportunities and the people to help you make this happen in fact.

More in the next lesson but remember this: Nothing in your life will change until you do!

Dr. Ernest Holmes

Dr. Ernest Holmes founded the International Religious Science movement, wrote The Science of Mind and numerous other books on metaphysics, and originated the international periodical Science of Mind Magazine, which has been in continuous publication since 1927. Dr. Holmes' Science of Mind teaching, recognized today as one of the leading viewpoints in modern metaphysics, is a spiritual philosophy that has brought to people around the world a working cosmology— a sense of their relationship to God and their place in the Universe and a positive, supportive approach to daily living.