The Field of Consciousness

In one of his parables regarding the kingdom of heaven, Christ Jesus used the illustration of a field of wheat. After the grain was properly sown, an enemy of the farmer sowed tares in the same field. And when the wheat grew, the tares appeared also. Then the question arose as to the best way to separate the tares from the wheat and to gain the benefit of the crop. The owner of the field told his servants to let both grow until the harvest. Then they could bind the tares and burn them and gather the wheat into the barn.

This is an example of what goes on in human consciousness. The beliefs of life and intelligence as existent in matter are the tares, and the spiritual truths of being are the wheat. In the time of harvest, when one gains spiritual understanding in his study of Christian Science, he begins to see the unreality of matter and of material beliefs. This is the binding and burning of the tares. He begins to grasp the presence and power of God, Spirit, and of God's spiritual ideas. This is gathering the wheat into the barn. The process of spiritual harvesting brings human consciousness into harmony with the divine Mind, or God, and thus progressively demonstrates the government of God in a more permanent sense of well-being.

Individuals are at different stages of experience, and often they are at work in different parts of the field of consciousness. They may go through various trials that ripen the grain in certain areas of their experience. They may proceed at various speeds of maturing. Hence, any judging of another or any criticism of his progress is not legitimate. Each one comes to his harvest in his own time and in his own way.

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Editorial
Spirituality Breaks Material Fetters
April 27, 1968
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