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Twelve Powers of Man
Chapter 8
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Understanding
REFERENCE to the dictionary shows the words wisdom,
understanding, knowledge, and intelligence to be so closely
related that their definitions overlap in a most confusing
way. The words differ in meaning, but various writers on
the mind and its faculties have given definitions of these
words in terms that directly oppose the definitions of
other writers. There are two schools of writers on
metaphysical subjects, and their definitions are likely to
confuse a student unless he knows to which class the writer
belongs. First are those who handle the mind and its
faculties from an intellectual standpoint, among whom may
be mentioned Kant, Hegel, Mill, Schopenhauer, and Sir
William Hamilton. The other school includes all the great
company of religious authors who have discerned that Spirit
and soul are the causing factors of the mind. Compilers of
dictionaries have consulted the former class for their
definitions, and we have in consequence an inadequate set
of terms to express the deep things of the mind. Even
Christian metaphysicians who belong in the second
classification have no clear understanding of the two great
realms of mind; first, that in which pure ideas and pure
logic rule; and second, the realm in which the
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thoughts and the actions of the mind are concerned with
reason and the relation of ideas in the outer world. It is
only in the last half century that large numbers of
Christians have discerned that Jesus taught a metaphysical
science.
Poets are natural mystics and metaphysicians, and in their
writings we find the safest definitions of the names used
to represent the actions of the mind. Poets nearly always
make the proper distinction between wisdom and
understanding. Tennyson says, "Knowledge comes, but wisdom
lingers." Spiritual discernment always places wisdom above
the other faculties of mind and reveals that knowledge and
intelligence are auxiliary to understanding. Intellectual
understanding comes first in the soul's development, then a
deeper understanding of principles follows, until the whole
man ripens into wisdom.
'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.
The writings of the Hebrew prophets are good examples of
original inspiration, which is wisdom. Solomon was famous
for his wisdom. Jehovah appeared to him in a dream and
said: "Ask what I shall give thee." Solomon replied: "Give
thy servant therefore an understanding heart to judge thy
people, that I may discern between good and evil." Pleased
because Solomon had asked for wisdom instead of riches and
honor, the Lord said:
Behold, I have done according to thy word; lo I have given
thee a wise and an understanding heart . . . And I
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have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both
riches and honor . . . And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it
was a dream.
It was after this occurrence that two women appealed to
Solomon to decide which of them really was the mother of
the child that they both claimed.
And the king said, Fetch me a sword. . . . And the king
said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the
one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the
living child was unto the king, for her heart yearned over
her son, and she said, Oh, my lord, give her the living
child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, It shall
be neither mine nor thine; divide it. Then the king
answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no
wise slay it: she is the mother thereof. And all Israel
heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they
feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in
him, to do justice.
The foregoing is a fine example of intuitive knowing.
Instead of indulging in the usual taking of testimony and
the various methods of proving the case by witnesses,
Solomon appealed directly to the heart and got the truth
quickly. No amount of exoteric testimony would have
accomplished what the appeal to love brought forth at once.
Although it is sometimes difficult to determine between
pure knowing and the quick perception of the intellect, the
decision can always be made truly, based on the presence of
the affectional nature.
Great philosophers in every age have testified to the
activity of a supermind quality, which they have
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variously named. Socrates had it. He called it his daemon.
Plato named it pure reason. Jesus called it the kingdom of
the heavens.
In an article by M. K. Wisehart, printed in the American
Magazine for June, 1930, entitled "A Close Look at the
World's Greatest Thinker," Professor Albert Einstein is
quoted as saying:
"'Every man knows that in his work he does best and
accomplishes most when he has attained a proficiency that
enables him to work intuitively. That is, there are things
which we come to know so well that we do not know how we
know them. So it seems to me in matters of principle.
Perhaps we live best and do things best when we are not too
conscious of how and why we do them.'
"He spoke of the great extent to which intuition figures in
his work, and gave me to understand that the ability to
work by intuition is one that can be acquired in any walk
of life. It comes as the result of prolonged effort and
reflection and application and failures and trying again.
Then, in the end, one knows things without knowing how one
knows them! And I gathered that the Professor meant to say
that no man knows anything until he knows it in this
thorough, instinctive way.
"People frequently ask Professor Einstein whether, as a
scientist, he believes in God. Usually he answers: 'I do
not believe in a God who maliciously or arbitrarily
interferes in the personal affairs of mankind. My religion
consists of an humble admiration for the vast power which
manifests itself in
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that small part of the universe which our poor, weak minds
can grasp!'
"In a discussion, when the Professor is impressed by the
correctness of his own views or those of another, he will
suddenly exclaim: 'Yes! So it is! It is just! It must be
so! I am quite sure that God could not have made it
different!' For him, God is as valid as a scientific
argument.
"At one time, after prolonged concentration upon a single
problem (it lasted for nearly four years), the Professor
suffered a complete physical collapse. With it came severe
stomach trouble. A celebrated specialist said: 'You must
not get out of bed! You cannot stand on your feet for a
long time to come.'
"'Is this the will of God?' queried the Professor
instantly. 'I think not! The voice of God is from within
us. Something within me tells me that every day I must get
up at least once. I must go to the piano and play! The rest
of the day I will spend in bed! This I am prepared to
accept as the will of God!'
"And with the will of God, as set forth by Einstein, the
specialist had to be content. Every day the Professor got
up, put his bathrobe over his night-shirt, and went to the
piano to play.
"I asked many questions to elicit the lessons of his
experience that might be of most use to the rest of us. I
learned that he reads little. 'Much reading after a certain
age,' he says, 'diverts the mind from its creative
pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain
too little falls into lazy
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habits of thinking, just as the man who spends too much
time in the theaters is apt to be content with living
vicariously instead of living his own life.
"'I have only two rules which I regard as principles of
conduct. The first is: Have no rules. The second is: Be
independent of the opinion of others.'"
So we find that there is in man a knowing capacity
transcending intellectual knowledge. Nearly everyone has at
some time touched this hidden wisdom and has been more or
less astonished at its revelations. It certainly is a most
startling experience to find ourselves giving forth logical
thoughts and words without preparation or forethought,
because we nearly always arrive at our conclusions through
a process of reasoning. However, the reasoning process is
often so swift that we are likely to think that it is true
inspiration, especially when we have received either the
reflected uplift of other wise ones or the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. This quickening of the intellect is the
John-the-Baptist or intellectual illumination that precedes
the awakening of the ideal, the Christ understanding. Some
Truth students become so enamored of the revelations that
they receive through the head that they fail to go on to
the unfoldment of the One who baptizes in "Holy Spirit and
in fire." The Old Testament writers had a certain
understanding of the first and the second opening of the
mind to spiritual Truth; Isaiah said:
The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness
the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a high way for
our God.
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Elijah had intellectual illumination, and the Israelites
were taught that he would come again as a forerunner of the
Messiah, Jesus said that Elijah had come again in the
personality of John the Baptist:
I say unto you, that Elijah is come already, and they knew
him not . . . Then understood the disciples that he spake
unto them of John the Baptist.
The history of the Israelites is a sort of moving picture
of man's soul and body development. When we understand the
psychology of the different scenes, we know what we have
passed through or will pass through in our journey from
sense to Spirit.
Intellectual understanding of Truth, as given in the first
baptism, is a tremendous step in advance of sense
consciousness, and its possession brings a temptation to
use for selfish ends the wisdom and the power thereby
revealed. When Jesus received this baptism He was "led up
of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil" (personal ego) before he could take the next degree
in Son-of-God consciousness.
But Jesus knew that the illumination of the personal is not
the fulfillment of the law, and He rejected every
temptation to use His understanding for selfish ends.
Unless the disciple is very meek he will find the mortal
ego strongly asserting its arguments for the application of
the power of Spirit to personal needs. The god of mammon is
bidding high for men that have received the baptism of
Spirit, and many
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sell out, but their end is dust and ashes. No man can serve
two masters; one cannot serve both God and Mammon.
When we discover in ourselves a flow of thought that seems
to have been evolved independently of the reasoning
process, we are often puzzled about its origin and its
safety as a guide. In its beginnings this seemingly strange
source of knowledge is often turned aside as a daydream;
again it seems a distant voice, an echo of something that
we have heard and forgotten. One should give attention to
this unusual and usually faint whispering of Spirit in man.
It is not of the intellect and it does not originate in the
skull. It is the development, in man, of a greater capacity
to know himself and to understand the purpose of creation.
The Bible gives many examples of the awakening of this
brain of the heart, in seers, in lawgivers, and in
prophets. It is accredited as coming from the heart. The
nature of the process is not explained; one who is in the
devotional stage of unfoldment need not know all the
complex movements of the mind in order to get the message
of the Lord. It is enough to know that the understanding is
opened in both head and heart when man gives himself wholly
to the Lord.
This relation of head and heart is illustrated in the lives
of John the Baptist and Jesus. They were cousins; the
understanding of the head bears a close relation to the
wisdom of the heart. They both received the baptism of
Spirit, John preceding Jesus and baptizing Him. Here the
natural order of spiritual
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illumination is illustrated. Man receives first an
intellectual understanding of Truth which he transmits to
his heart, where love is awakened. The Lord reveals to him
that the faculty of love is the greatest of all the powers
of man and that head knowledge must decrease as heart
understanding increases.
However, we should remember that none of the faculties is
eliminated in the regeneration. Among the apostles of
Jesus, Thomas typifies the head, representing reason and
intellectual perception. Jesus did not ignore Thomas's
demand for physical evidence of His identity, but respected
it. He convinced Thomas by corporal evidence that there had
been a body resurrection; that He was living, not in a
physical or ghost body, but in the same body that had been
crucified.
Jesus plainly taught that He had attained control of the
life in the body and could take it up or lay it down. We
may construe the death and the resurrection of Jesus in
various ways, many of them fanciful and allegorically far
removed from practical life, but the fact remains that
there is good historical evidence of the physical reality
of the Resurrection in its minutest detail.
Spiritual understanding shows us that the resurrection of
the body from death is not to be confined to Jesus, but is
for all men who comprehend Truth and apply it as Jesus
applied it. He had the consciousness of the new flood of
life that comes to all who open their minds and their
bodies to the living
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Word of God, and He knew that it would raise the atomic
vibration of His organism above the disintegrating thought
currents of the earth and thus would save His flesh from
corruption.
When Jesus told the Jews what He discerned, they said that
He was crazy ("hath a demon"). One who teaches and
practices the higher understanding and reality of man's
relation to the creative law is not sane--from the
viewpoint of mortal man.
When the higher understanding in Jesus proclaimed, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my word, he shall
never see death," they took up stones to cast at Him. This
startling claim of the power of the word of Truth to save
one from death is beyond all human reason, and it is
resented by the material thoughts, which are as hard as
rocks.
Jesus did not let the limited race thought about man keep
Him from doing the works of Spirit. He knew that the light
of Truth had arisen in His consciousness and He was not
afraid to affirm it. He went right ahead healing the sick
and teaching the Truth as He saw it, regardless of the
traditions of the Hebrew fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. He kept the light shining in His consciousness by
being loyal to it and by making for Himself the highest
statements of Truth that He could conceive. The Christ Mind
speaking in Him said: "I am the light of the world."
Spiritual understanding is developed in a multitude of
ways; no two persons have exactly the same experience. One
may be a Saul, to whom the light
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comes in a blinding flash, while to another the light may
come gently and harmoniously. The sudden breaking forth of
the light indicates the existence of stored-up reservoirs
of spiritual experience, gained from previous lives. Jesus
saw that Saul had a spiritual capacity that, turned into
right channels, would do great good; so He took some pains
to awaken in Saul the true light and thereby restrain the
destructive zeal that possessed him. "He is a chosen vessel
unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and
the children of Israel."
The spiritual nature develops in man as the other
attributes of his character develop. "As he thinketh within
himself, so is he" is a statement of the law that has no
exception. Man develops the capacity to do that which he
sets out to do. If one makes no start one never goes.
In idle wishes fools supinely stay;
Be there a will, then wisdom finds a way.
No one ever attained spiritual consciousness without
striving for it. The first step is to ask. "Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you." Prayer is one form of asking,
seeking, and knocking. Then make your mind receptive to the
higher understanding, through silent meditations and
affirmations of Truth. The earnest desire to understand
spiritual things will open the way and revelation within
and without will follow. In Daniel 10:12 it is written:
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Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst
set thy heart to understand, and to humble thyself before
thy God, thy words were heard: and I am come for thy words'
sake.
Daniel humbled himself in the presence of the universal
Mind, and thereby opened his understanding and made himself
receptive to the cosmic consciousness. Daniel and his
companions were superior in wisdom and understanding to all
the native magicians and seers in the whole Babylonian
realm. The Scriptures say that God gave Daniel knowledge
and skill in all learning and wisdom, and "Daniel had
understanding in all visions and dreams." Cultivate purity
of mind and body, and you will open the way for the higher
thoughts, as did Daniel. He "purposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with
the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the
prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself."
Spiritual understanding is developed in the feminine realm
of the soul. This development is pictured in Acts 16:14:
"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of
the city of Thyatira, one that worshipped God, heard us:
whose heart the Lord opened."
Thyatira means "burning incense"; it represents the intense
desire of man for the higher expressions of life. When this
inner urge comes forth with power (seller of purple), the
Lord opens the heart and we receive the heavenly message,
like the disciples who said one to another: "Was not
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our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the
way, while he opened to us the scriptures?"
Wisdom consisteth not in knowing many things, nor even in
knowing them thoroughly; but in choosing and in following
what conduces the most certainly to our lasting happiness
and true glory.--Landor
Knowledge dwells in heads replete with thoughts of other
men, wisdom in minds attentive to their own.--Cowper
She [knowledge] is earthly of the mind, but wisdom heavenly
of the soul.--Tennyson
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
--Psalms 51:10.
For wisdom shall enter into thy heart,
And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul.
--Proverbs 2:10.
But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light.
That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
--Proverbs 4:18.
A tranquil heart is the life of the flesh;
But envy is the rottenness of the bones.
--Proverbs 14:30.
My son, forget not my law;
But let thy heart keep my commandments.
--Proverbs 3:1.
Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart,
And lean not upon thine own understanding:
In all thy ways acknowledge him,
And he will direct thy paths.
--Proverbs 3:5, 6
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Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,
And the man that getteth understanding.
For the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver,
And the profit thereof than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies:
And none of the things thou canst desire art to be compared
unto her.
Length of days is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her:
And happy is every one that retaineth her.
Jehovah by wisdom founded the earth;
By understanding he established the heavens.
--Proverbs 3:13-19.
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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