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Atom-Smashing Power of Mind
Chapter 18
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[Atom-Smashing Power of Mind]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Transfiguration
Chapter XVIII
Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
TRANSFIGURATION is always preceded by a change of mind. Our
ideas must be lifted from the material, the physical, to
the spiritual. But first we need to realize that it is
possible for us to be transfigured as well as to understand
the law by which transfiguration is brought about.
The meaning of the Transfiguration has never been
understood by those who read the Scriptures as history. The
transfiguration of Jesus has always been considered a
historical event, and its allegorical meaning overlooked.
To get the real meaning of the Transfiguration, we must
regard the experience of Jesus on the mount as typical of
what often takes place in those who are growing in
spiritual consciousness.
We have evidences every day of the power of thought to
transfigure the countenance. We know that it is possible
for a person to be transformed in a degree by the thoughts
that flit through his mind from moment to moment, but we do
not know his capacity for transfiguration, which is
unlimited, nor the part it plays in his attainment of the
Christ consciousness and the Christ body.
The real object of existence is to bring forth the
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perfect man and attain eternal life. Eternal life must be
earned. It is usually assumed that man does not die, and
this is true of the I AM; but how about the consciousness,
the soul? "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" is the
testimony of the Scriptures. That only lives which conforms
to the principle of eternal life.
Spirit exists eternally in God-Mind, of which we must
become conscious. This consciousness is soul and is the
tangible part of soul. God-Mind gives us the opportunity to
incorporate into our consciousness His attributes. These
attributes are spiritual life, love, wisdom, strength,
power, in fact the essence of all good, which we realize
first in mind, then in body and affairs. Thus God gives us
the spiritual perfection that we are to manifest and retain
eternally in consciousness. This is His Son or Christ.
Jesus taught that we must attain the consciousness of
eternal life, that we have no life in us until we have
attained this consciousness. Until we demonstrate over
death, the death of the body, we are in a transitory state
of existence.
Then the real object of existence is to attain the
consciousness of eternal life and to manifest all that is
potentially involved in us by our Creator. The Spirit--I AM
or ego in man is eternal, but there must be a consciousness
of this quality of eternity; there must be a consciousness
of the image-and-likeness
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man. There must be in every one of us a realization of that
Spirit which has in it--involved in its being--all that
exists in the universal. If we do not realize this, if we
do not make it ours, we must eventually go back to the
universal. Jesus was the great way-shower to the attainment
of this realization of Spirit, and we shall miss "the prize
of the high calling" if we do not enter the path that He
trod and that He pointed out in many parables,
illustrations, and experiences.
Then this overcoming or lifting up of man is a process
through which we are all passing if we have been converted
to the Christ way of life. Transfiguration plays a part and
an important part in this evolution of the soul. When we
see the parallel between our experiences and the
transfiguration of Jesus we gain confidence to go forward.
In our study and application of the Christian life we all
have times when we are spiritually uplifted. Such a time is
marked by a form of spiritual enthusiasm, which is brought
about by statements of Truth made by ourselves or
others--prayers, words of praise, songs, meditations--any
statement of Truth that exalts the spiritual realms of the
mind. Jesus was lifted up by Peter, James, and John (faith,
judgment, and love). Whenever we dwell on these virtues and
try to live up to them, they are exalted in consciousness,
and they go up with us to the mount of Transfiguration. You
may not always realize
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this. You may think that the uplifting was just a passing
exaltation, but it stamps itself on your soul and body and
marks the planting of a new idea in the upward trend of the
whole man.
What is your attitude toward these times when you feel the
mighty uplift of Spirit? Do you give them their due
importance; or when you again come down into the valley, do
you groan and question and wonder why you do not abide in
your exaltation, why there seems a falling away of the mind
from it?
Right here we must be wise and understand the relation of
the higher principles of man and their action in the
redemption of soul and body. Do not lose sight of the fact
that the whole man must be spiritualized. Some people get
into the habit of going up in spirit to the mount of
Transfiguration, and they find it so enticing that they
refuse to descend to the valley again. Then soul and body
are left to go their own way, and a separation ensues. Such
persons dwell continually on the heights and ignore the
essential unity of Spirit, soul, and body. Many delusions
arise among Christians because they lack understanding of
the law of the idea and its manifestations. All things, all
actions, all principles, are working toward the unity of
God, man, and the universe. But there must be a
readjustment and a cleansing of the whole mass. If there
are things, whether mental or physical, that are not up to
the high standard of Spirit, they must die. Jesus on the
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mount spoke of His death that was to follow. This death is
of the material perception of substance and life, which is
reflected in man's body of flesh. This must perish. The
limited concept of matter and of a material body must be
transformed so that the true spiritual body may appear.
We find that at every upward step we take in our evolution
there is a sloughing off of, a doing away with, some parts
of consciousness that do not accord with the higher
principles. Jesus referred to it as the planting of a seed
in the ground and its dying before it can bring forth the
new life. The real life chit in the seed does not die. It
lives and multiplies when rid of its husk of bondage. In
the refinement of metals the fire, which is life, fuses the
whole mass. Then the molten elements form a new base; the
precious metals go by themselves and the dross goes by
itself. The dross is poured off and thrown away, the
precious metals are saved.
Much the same thing takes place in the action of Spirit,
soul, and body when a person goes into the high
consciousness and is transfigured. Some persons call it
conversion, some illumination, some the lifting-up power of
Spirit. Whatever you call it, it is the same thing. When
the white heat of God life comes upon man, there is
exaltation and transfusion of elements. The result of soul
exaltation is a finer soul essence forming the base of a
new body substance. The passing away of the dross of
materiality
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is a form of death.
You have doubtless wondered: "Why is it that, after I have
had an uplift, after I have had a high realization, or a
strong treatment, I have to meet so many errors? It seems
to me that the negative side piles in on me the next day or
the next few weeks stronger than ever."
The cause of this is a gathering together of the evil and
the good; the day of judgment has arrived, and you are the
judge. You may even be buried for "three days" in that
material consciousness which has not yet come to the full
light. But when you know the law that Spirit is always with
you you have nothing to fear, if you hold steadily to the
Christ presence that you realized in the mount of
Transfiguration.
Having once seen Truth, having once had the illumination,
you find that the next step is to demonstrate it and not to
be cast down or discouraged by the opposite. When the
crucifixion comes and you are suffering the pangs of dying
error, you may cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" forgetting for the time the promises in the
mount of Transfiguration. This is when you need to realize
that you are passing through a transforming process that
will be followed by a resurrection of all that is worth
saving.
Transfiguration is an essential step in every forward
movement of men and nations. All philosophers
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have observed it in its various phases. Carlyle says: "Once
risen into this divine white heat of temper, were it only
for a season and not again, it is henceforth considerable
through all its remaining history. And no nation that has
not had such divine paroxysms at any time is apt to come to
much."
Paul saw it in its work in man, when he wrote, "For our
citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the
body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the
body of his glory." "Then shall the righteous shine forth
as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." "We know that,
if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we
shall see him even as he is." "As we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly."
It is quite essential that those who are striving for "the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" cling to
their ideal as real. It should not be regarded in the light
of a past event or of a future achievement, but as
fulfillment here and now. This is illustrated in the
communion of Moses and Elijah with Jesus on the mount,
Moses representing the law, Elijah its fulfillment. Jesus
is the I AM, in which both the past and the future are
joined. But Peter, not understanding the lesson, wanted to
make three tabernacles, representing the tendency of man to
separate and localize that which is spiritual and
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universal.
When the voice of Principle proclaimed the spiritual man's
presence--"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased; hear ye him"--there were no promises of the past
or the future. Time has no power over one who dwells in the
mind of God. There is no time to the mind of one who
realizes omnipresence. Nothing will transfigure the race
and renew the body so rapidly as the denial of both past
and future. Persons get childish because they let their
thoughts dwell upon the past. Fear of the future weakens
the virile life, and the feet stumble. The Son of God is
vigorous with the increasing life that is perpetually
flowing forth from the Father. When man realizes the
omnipresent life his whole organism is vitalized, and the
soul is glorified. When man is in spiritual consciousness
his soul shines with an energy that electrifies the outer
clothing. Those little points of magnetic light, which we
have all observed upon removing our clothing at night, are
weak manifestations of the aura of the soul, which can be
magnified until the whole body is ablaze with it.
Some Christians teach the saving of the soul and the
perishing of the body. Jesus taught the saving of both soul
and body. It is true that this mortal body must be
transfigured; it is but a picture or symbol of the real,
the spiritual body, which is the "Lord's body." The "Lord's
body" is the body
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of Spirit, the divine idea of a perfect human body. When
one realizes this new body, the cells of the present body
will form on new planes of consciousness, they will
aggregate around new centers, and the "Lord's body" will
appear.
"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror
the glory of our Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
When the body is devitalized by excessive labor,
dissipation, or any loss of vital force, its aura shrinks
away and a consciousness akin to that of being unclothed is
evident. To dream of being naked or partly clothed is a
warning by Spirit that the reserve vital force has been
dissipated and the natural clothing of the body removed.
Continuous disregard of the law of conservation of vital
force is followed by various diseases and finally death.
During sleep the system, under natural law, seeks to
equalize the vital forces, and it does so if the
intellectual concentration has not been too great. A dream
of falling means that this force, which has been piled up
in the head, is falling down into the lower channels of the
body, and is restoring equilibrium at the expense of
harmonious reaction. When the mind is adjusted to the
divine law, all the vital forces flow harmoniously and the
aura glows about the body as a beautiful white light,
protecting it from all discord from without and purifying
it continually from within.
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This is the state of the perfected man described in
Revelation 1:14-16.
"And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white
as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet
like unto burnished brass . . . and his voice as the voice
of many waters. . . . and his countenance was as the sun
shineth in his strength."
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[Atom-Smashing Power of Mind]
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