Editorial November 2, 1974 Issue

Mind Understands

Geoffrey J. Barratt

It's not unusual for thinking individuals to wonder just what they really are and what they are here for—to speculate on their origin, their purpose, their goal. Answers to searchings like these are beyond mere human speculation. But Mind, Deity—the only cause—understands. So there is a step we all can take to find answers to existential questions. Christian Science teaches that there is only one Mind, one God, one consciousness. It's worthwhile considering the implications of this. It is only from the admission, the humble acceptance, of this fact that one can begin to find some insight into the nature of being.

To glimpse and comprehend omniscient Mind—all-knowing consciousness—demands a spiritual approach. Purely materialistic thought isn't capable of comprehending the nature of its opposite. But spiritual thinking apprehends the nature of Mind. We spiritualize our thought by acknowledging Mind as the source of all that is true, and by living consistently with this fact. We come to recognize that greater spiritualness is an evidence of the activity of Mind itself, not just something a mortal must labor for and put on. Following this, our drawing closer to Mind is more possible to achieve and our sense of unity with God is easier to maintain.

Spiritually unenlightened and unhumble material thought inevitably finds it difficult—even impossible—to acquire a sense of the immortal. Mortalized thought removes itself far from an understanding of real being. But through some measure of spirituality we can begin to cognize that all understanding flows from Mind. All genuine understanding of Mind is understanding that actually has its roots and its impulsion in Mind itself, not in a materialized mortal consciousness. In a helpful explanation which, when digested, can lead us to a significant breakthrough in our comprehension of Deity, Mrs. Eddy says this: "Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind understands."^{ Science and Health, p. 487;}