UNDISTURBED
In one of his discourses Jesus told his disciples, "Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me" (John 14:30 ). Nothing in the world could disturb Jesus or turn him from the contemplation of the Christ, Truth, which animated him. He was conscious of God as He is, and of his own true selfhood in the likeness of the divine. He understood God to be eternal Life, the one all-inclusive, frictionless Being.
There is nothing outside of God that could encroach upon Him. If there were any element of discord in infinite Being, Life would ultimately spend itself. To be eternal, Life must be without any element of friction. This one undisturbable Being is eternally expressed by each one of us because man is the reflection of infinite Life and perfect Mind.
Individuals, then, are wrong when they believe that they are in possession of disquieting tendencies or undesirable traits and that little can be done about it. How erroneous to accept as belonging to God's child any sense of irritation! Neither receptivity to healing nor the power to heal others resides in an irritated, disturbed mentality. But in the consciousness that is uplifted and at peace the healing Christ, the power of God, is felt. So our goal is to understand and manifest our divine sonship through the tranquillity inherent in us and thus to demonstrate our immunity to anxiety and disturbance.
If we can be disturbed by certain circumstances or the actions of someone else, then is not our peace of mind in a precarious state? Is not this an indication, too, that there is need for us to correct our own consciousness until every tendency to be annoyed is conquered? Actually, not the situation itself, but our own sense of it is all that is disquieting.
God's man is not disturbed. Then what is irritated at the actions of another? Usually it is egotism, pride, or self-will, claiming existence in one's consciousness. Or it may be self-righteousness that is sometimes shocked at what it terms the enormity of error. When truth has been assimilated, one is governed by spiritual sense. Then error's pretense no longer deceives and upsets. Mortal mind has only its own erring concepts. When others seem to think wrongly about us, we know that they are thinking only of their own wrong concept of us. That, of course, in reality never touches, much less harms, us. The one undisturbable Mind governs all in peace and harmony. This Mind, the Mind of every individual, does not misunderstand, but ever loves its own ideas. As Jeremiah expresses it (29:11 ), "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."
Confronted by an untoward incident, mortal mind is apt to exclaim, "What happened?" It accepts the distressing circumstance as taking place and attempts to assign a material cause for it. Christian Science denies its occurrence. It handles the situation, not as a personal experience, but as animal magnetism attempting to hide the inviolate good that is always present. What seems to be disturbing does not exist in reality, for God's allness cannot be invaded. It seems real only to unenlightened thought. It is rectified, or eliminated, as the need may be, by our correction of our erring sense of it with the understanding that everything that has presence or existence is good.
We should scientifically handle as impersonal and as nonexistent the suggestion that we are erring mortals. We can see through evil's machinations to man's true selfhood, as never expressing any sort of imperfection. Indeed, we can be alert to every attempt of error to deceive and irritate. In our true being we are sensitive to good alone.
Nervousness and emotionalism—tension, grief, resentment, irritation—are suggestions of evil that would confuse and disturb. Individuals jeopardize their growth Spiritward when they contend for what they term their nature, their emotional tendencies, or their indulgences. To argue for them is to succumb to animal magnetism's attempt to retard healing. Erring emotions cannot cling to one who understands the real man. They have no power with which to fasten themselves onto one. But we have power from God to hold thought to good. The exercise of this true tenacity aids in destroying the false belief in erring emotional tendencies.
Today materia medica is claiming that many ailments are caused by nervous or emotional disturbances. Yet Truth destroys these tendencies as erring beliefs and also heals the discordant bodily conditions to which these agitated feelings seem to give rise. One should not accede to the erroneous supposition that it is wrong to thwart emotions. Even momentary indulgence prolongs, never ends, their suppositional existence. One does not become honest through stealing, nor can he demonstrate tranquillity through irritation. The slightest irritation is without justification in Truth.
Beliefs in nervousness and upsetting emotions come from the ignorant assumption that man is separated from God. False belief claims that he is a mortal, controlled by material nerves. The fact is that man is spiritual, eternally at one with God, Love, controlled by Him alone, and that he is forever expressing Love's uninvadable harmonious control. The truth which saves from the belief in weak, tired nerves, nervous prostration, false stimulation, and agitating emotions is the inseparability of divine Mind and its perfect idea, man.
Peace of mind is a pearl of great price that is not to be forfeited under the pressure of aggressive sense testimony. Let us ask ourselves, "Is there anything worth being disturbed about?" The evil of being disturbed is not just that we have allowed ourselves to be upset, but that we have succumbed to error's attempt to hide ever-present good from us. When one is conscious of man's unity with divine Love, he is undisturbed, poised, and ever at peace. He expresses the firmness and stability of Principle. His orderly, disciplined mentality is not only stable, but also active in its adherence to good.
In writing of the Christ, which Jesus so perfectly expressed, Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 26 ), "This Christ, or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine nature, the godliness which animated him." The Christ is always acquainting us with our radiant, spiritual selfhood, and it reveals our indissoluble oneness, or unity, with God as ever satisfying and permanent. The recognition of this unity removes us from the influence of every upsetting suggestion and enables us to maintain an abiding consciousness of God's presence and love.
This consciousness includes nothing that can be disturbed, for it is a reflection of the undisturbable Mind, which is God. To thought so illumined these healing words of our Leader's glow with new spiritual meaning (ibid., p.306): "Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal."
