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Teach Us To Pray
Spiritualizing the Intellect
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
I separate myself in consciousness from the mind of the
flesh, that I may enter into the mind that was in Christ
Jesus.
THIS affirmation is a good one to take into the inner
consciousness, and we would emphasize the word
"consciousness." This whole matter of soul unfoldment
depends upon the consciousness that we have.
We have no independent mind--there is only universal
Mind--but we have consciousness in that Mind, and we have
control over that consciousness. We have control over our
own thoughts, and our thoughts fill our consciousness. By
analyzing ourselves we find that we unconsciously separate
our self into different personalities. Now we should do
this work consciously. We should enter into the
understanding that the I AM power (all power) is given unto
us in consciousness, and then join or unify this
consciousness with the great Christ Mind.
Thus the central idea in this word of affirmation that we
are seeking to understand and to incorporate into our
consciousness is the Christ Mind. As spiritual
metaphysicians we find that the Christ Mind is the Mind of
Spirit. In the consciousness of man
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it functions as two states of consciousness: one in the
flesh, the other in the Spirit. But the mind of the Spirit
is the source of all.
In daily worship it is well to impress upon the sensitive
mind that it is unified with Divine Mind through Christ,
through the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.
Understanding this as the basic principle of our thought
and realizing the power of thought to impress itself upon
the sensitive plate of man's mind, we find this prayer
invaluable:
I separate myself in consciousness from the mind of the
flesh, that I may enter into the mind that was in Christ
Jesus.
First we disentangle our thoughts from the flesh and lift
our consciousness up to Spirit. We hold them steady in
spiritual consciousness until they begin to get hold of
Spirit essence, Spirit power, Spirit love. Everything that
we see in the manifest comes from this one Spirit-mind; so
it is well to hold this affirmation until the most sacred
ethers respond to our realization:
I separate myself in consciousness from the mind of the
flesh, that I may enter into the mind that was in Christ
Jesus.
When considering the value of prayer and realization we
call to mind the case of Jacob and Esau receiving the
blessing of their father Isaac.
It was customary to give the first-born the prior
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blessing, and this blessing of the first-born belonged to
Esau. But through the connivance of the mother, Rebekah,
and Jacob himself, Jacob got the blessing, and of course by
a subterfuge. The procedure was really a dishonest one, and
Esau was wroth with his brother Jacob for taking his
blessing and threatened his life. The mother advised Jacob
to flee to the country of her brother Laban, and Jacob
immediately set out on his journey. He was however in a
wilderness of thought.
As metaphysical Christians we take this scripture to be a
spiritual history of man as well as a history of outer
events. We try to read it in the spirit appropriate to it.
Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. The Bible
is a spiritual book. We arrive at a greater understanding
and enhance our interest in the different characters of
Jacob and Esau when we look upon them not only as
individuals but as representatives of the race as a whole.
If we study the four characters of Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and
Rebekah, we find that they represent dominant ideas in man,
ideas that pertain to his very being, that are of vital
interest. As we read out of the law we find that Esau--a
hunter, a person subservient to his bodily appetites, a man
of the flesh--represents the flesh, the body. A person of a
little different turn of mind, a man who loved home and the
quiet spiritual things of life, Jacob represents the mind,
the intellectual man.
Of course in the process of evolution the natural man comes
first. Then the spiritual man begins to
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unfold in us. Here in the Bible story we find that the
spiritual man, or rather the intellectual man illumined by
Spirit, gets the blessing. The Israelites set great store
by this blessing. Rightly understood, a blessing is a great
source of inspiration. It lays a firm foundation in the
mind, and it brings out the good. A curse sees the evil and
emphasizes it; but a blessing sees only the good and
emphasizes only the good. Thus we come to see the
importance for the soul's evolution of an understanding of
the development of these two Biblical characters.
As we look at the blessing that Isaac gave Jacob and
Esau--for he did bless Esau after he had blessed Jacob,
though he gave Esau the blessing that would bring out his
character--we discover that he was governed by law. The
blessing he gave Jacob was one upon the mind and not upon
the body; in fact, it was a blessing of the part of the
race mind concerned with service, the part that has to do
with the exercise of authority.
In this blessing there is a calling forth of those inherent
faculties of the mind which enter into the exercise of
authority. "Let people serve thee." The mind dominates the
body. "Let . . . nations bow down to thee." We also see
nations being dictated to by some mind, some dictator.
"Let thy mother's sons bow down to thee:
Cursed be every one that curseth thee,
And blessed be every one that blesseth thee."
Here we can see the power of ideas to bless or to
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curse. We see that he who uses his mind to curse gets the
curse in return, while the mind that blesses receives
blessings in return.
If we study our mind we find that it is radiating energy
constantly and that whatever we send out comes back. This
is true of the mind of man, and we see it in evidence
everywhere, not only individually but collectively.
To Esau Isaac said,
"Behold, of the fatness of the earth shall be thy dwelling,
And of the dew of heaven from above;
And by thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy
brother."
Here in these symbols we have the body man or man of the
flesh. "The fatness of the earth shall by thy dwelling":
man lives very close to the earth. "And by thy sword shalt
thou live": the man of flesh is sent forth by the man of
the mind to carry out his warring ideas. Intellectual man
is the general or the governor or the dictator that sends
the man of the flesh to do his biddings.
"And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt break loose,
That thou shalt shake his yoke from off thy neck."
In the evolution of man, the body (Esau) finally comes into
its own. The Isaac blessing is carried out in the world
today. We find that the working classes
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that have been under the yoke of the intellect--the
intellectual man--now are beginning to assert themselves.
They are breaking loose from the yoke of bondage to the
intellect, the mind; the flesh is beginning to assert
itself. We are giving more attention to the flesh every
day. People are awaking to the fact that the body is an
important part of man, and so we see everywhere the
fulfillment of this blessing.
If we study ourselves, we find a tendency toward the
working out of the two minds. The tendency of the intellect
is to dominate, to have its way and ignore the body. But
the body is beginning to break loose from this bondage and
demand its own. It is saying to us: "Why, I am a very
important part of this world. You can't leave me and go off
to some faraway place. I am an important part of you." So
with Esau the flesh begins to break loose from this
dominance of the mind that has separated it from the good
things of the heavenly estate. We raise it up, and it
begins to become a power in the world. We must soon come to
a place in our national, social, and economic evolution
where the earth and all that it has will be recognized in a
larger way, become an integral part of our life. This is
very clearly taught in this story of the mind and the
heart. Isaac (the I AM) recognized this unity and brought
it into expression in his blessings of his two sons.
We have these two "sons," the mind and the body. It is the
mind that connects us with Principle.
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Jacob made this connection, but Esau had as yet failed to
come to the place where he could recognize that he was a
son of God. Jacob took that blessing from him. He became
the sole representative when he was really the secondary
one, but he forged ahead in the race; and so we have today
the intellect dominating almost everything. It is evident
that the Jacob faculty (the illumined intellect) has
assumed its prerogative in the world today. The illumined
intellect rules. God is omnipresent, God is intelligence,
just as much in our mind as anywhere. The blessing of the I
AM consciousness brings out the intelligence that has the
greatest ruling power. But we find that we must also bless
the body as well as everything connected with it.
As we study the Bible we find that after he broke away from
the material consciousness Jacob had many experiences. He
went into another state of consciousness (another country),
in which he was awakened spiritually to a still higher
plane. In the 16th verse of the 28th chapter of Genesis we
read: "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said,
Surely Jehovah is in this place; and I knew it not." He was
in the sleeping state of consciousness. He had a dream and
saw a ladder extending from the earth up into heaven and
angels or messengers of God ascending and descending it.
Jehovah was at the top of this ladder, and He told Jacob
that he was to be the father of a great nation and that a
certain blessing was to be poured out upon him. When Jacob
awoke he saw that God was in the
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place where he was; that the place was the very "house of
God," the dwelling place of God.
In other words, here was evidence of omnipresence. Each
individual must have his first awakening to the truth that
God is everywhere and that, whatever may be the place, God
is there as omnipresent Spirit-mind. In this instance Jacob
was surrounded by rocky hills, and he piled up stones and
made an altar to Jehovah right there. The great lesson for
us is that God is everywhere, no matter how material the
surroundings may seem to be. To the unregenerate man there
is usually a great awakening in an experience of this kind.
When man begins to see beneath the surface and to realize
that God is with him constantly, he seeks to make a union
with infinite Mind, omnipresent God-Mind. The Scripture
reads: "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with
me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give
me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come
again to my father's house in peace, and Jehovah will be my
God, then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar,
shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I
will surely give the tenth unto thee."
Here was a covenant or an agreement made by a man at the
moment of his first great illumination as regards the one
omnipresent substance. He may have realized before that God
was the great I AM, the Jehovah, leading him, but he did
not realize that this earthly substance, the rocks about
him, were
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really representative: that they are a part, a living part,
of the God substance; that the I AM man in his illumination
has a share in that substance; that it is his substance
through infinite Mind. The covenant of Jacob to give one
tenth of all his increase was the real beginning of what in
modern times we call tithing: making God a partner in all
our finances.
Jacob became a great financier of the ancient world, and
through the illumination that he got from Jehovah he knew
how to take advantage of every opportunity.
We do not take Jacob as an example of how man should handle
his finances, for he was something of a trickster. In truth
he represents the trickery and cunning of the world in this
field. But apparently Jehovah, the one Mind, was with him.
Sometimes there are contradictions that we cannot always
understand; but when we know that we are the directive
power as regards all that belongs to us, we may get on
financially. But in the end there is an adjustment,
illustrated in the meeting of Jacob and Esau at the ford
Jabbok.
But with it all Jacob loved Jehovah and shared his wealth
with the Lord. He proved the law of tithing, that tithing
is one of the foundation principles of financial success.
Man can become a great possessor of the substance of this
world if he follows certain rules of tithing. Jacob gives
us the key, which is the recognition that God is all
substance, and that if man wants to handle this substance
wisely and well, if he wants to handle it for great material
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success, he should do what Jacob did: take God into
partnership with him.
There is an omnipresent economic Mind, and if a man begins
to deal with this economic Mind he will have a partner that
has all resources.
If you want to become a rich man, if you want to be
possessed of every good thing in the world, take God as
your partner, incorporate His mind into your mind, in your
daily giving. Give of your substance with the thought that
it is God's money you are handling. Realize that it is His
tenth that you are giving for His glory. With this thought
in your mind you will begin to attract new spiritual
resources, and things will begin to open up in your
affairs. You will know that infinite Mind is with you. That
is what Jacob realized, and he attained great success in
his affairs. I would say to everyone who wishes to
demonstrate prosperity: take God into partnership with you
and you will demonstrate abundance.
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