"No other consciousness"
In the scientific record of creation as set forth in the first chapter of Genesis, God established the firmament to divide "the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament." Gen. 1:7; According to Christian Science the firmament is spiritual understanding, with which we are able to distinguish between spiritual being and material existence. As our understanding increases concerning God as Spirit and man as His likeness, we cling less and less to materiality and seek to dwell more and more in spirituality, in the uplifted and enlightened consciousness in which we find all good—unbounded, real, eternal. "And God called the firmament Heaven." v. 8;
Christian Science shows that spiritual understanding is important because it is the way to attain health and happiness; that it is necessary because it is the only sure means of escape from evil; that its scope affords us unlimited opportunities to apply it. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy explains, "When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness." Science and Health, p. 264;
Christ Jesus needed no other consciousness. He realized that Life is Spirit; he understood that Spirit constitutes all substance, intelligence, power, identity, activity, and is the condition of all real existence. He taught that as men become aware of the facts of spiritual being, they escape from the illusions of material existence. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," John 8:32; he declared, and he demonstrated the effect of this truth-knowing, or spiritual consciousness. With it he freed the repentant woman from sin, released Bartimaeus from blindness, raised Lazarus from the grave. In these demonstrations a material sense of things was of no use to the Master; he needed no consciousness other than his reflection of the divine.
Ever-present Spirit is imparting Christlike understanding to us today. It is ours in the degree that we accept it; it expands as we utilize it. As we are receptive of this understanding, we too find that nothing less than Spirit can be Life, that nothing less than the reflection of Spirit can be man's identity, that nothing less than God can sustain man. We discover that it is through this understanding that we find the infinity and freedom we long for, the health and happiness we seek, the holiness and immortality we pray for.
But what about matter? Do we not see it, feel it, dwell in the midst of it, depend upon it? Are we not conscious of it in one form or another most of the time? It would seem so; but Mrs. Eddy writes of this material sense of things, "That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a supposititious mortal consciousness." Science and Health, p. 278; And then she adds this explanation, which is enlightening and encouraging to those struggling to free themselves from the discords and limitations of materiality: "Hence, as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the consciousness of matter." Surely whatever we lose through spiritual growth, we do not need!
Supposititious mortal consciousness is the exact opposite of the firmament of spiritual understanding. Instead of separating the real from the unreal, it appears to combine the two, to infuse matter with Spirit. We read of this in the second chapter of Genesis: "There went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Gen. 2:6, 7; When we fail to distinguish between false consciousness, or material sense, and the genuine consciousness, which is imparted by Spirit, thought is confused and materialized. In such mist-filled consciousness, contradictions of the facts of being appear—finiteness and bondage, disease and unhappiness, evil and mortality.
But we can be delivered from all this. We can acknowledge and accept all that we find in spiritual consciousness; we can deny and reject all that we find in supposititious mortal consciousness. This is the practical way to obey the Master's requirement to know spiritual truth and be freed from material error.
Life is Spirit. We can know this truth and become increasingly conscious of the infinity and freedom of spiritual being. The consciousness of infinity brings to light the inexhaustible nature of wisdom, strength, ability, opportunity, love—the forever unfolding abundance of everything needful. It sets aside all limits imposed by material sense, dispels every suggestion of pettiness, inadequacy, and insufficiency. The consciousness of freedom, our heritage of the inalienable right to express every quality of God, emancipates us from fear and hate and breaks the fetters of time and of so-called material law. We need this spiritual consciousness; we do not need its supposititious opposite.
Life is Spirit. We can know this truth and become increasingly conscious of the harmony and bliss of spiritual being. The consciousness of harmony is health: it expresses itself in vitality, wholesomeness, usefulness; it blots out the sense of weakness, disease, and pain; it nullifies the medical theory that health is a condition of matter. The consciousness of boundless bliss constitutes happiness: it is the essence of spontaneity, good humor, and the ability to enjoy; it outshines the material sense of pleasure; it lifts thought above gloom, heaviness, and grief. We need this spiritual consciousness; we do not need its supposititious opposite.
Life is Spirit. We can know this truth and become increasingly conscious of the holiness and immortality of spiritual being. The consciousness of holiness, or the wholeness of being, reveals the presence of perfection and of beauty; it overcomes every suggestion of inferiority and repudiates matter's claims of deficiency and deformity. The consciousness of immortality brings into view a higher but attainable state of existence which is out of reach of all that is mortal—of age and accident, of birth and death, of matter and its conditions. We need this spiritual consciousness; we do not need its supposititious opposite.
Believing that life is in and of matter, some of us, like the prodigal son in Jesus' parable, have tried perhaps to find freedom, happiness, and completeness in a material sense of existence. If so, then we have learned, even as the prodigal did, that material existence includes not these riches, but only their variable and fictitious opposites. But just as the prodigal was welcomed and blessed by his father even before he reached home, so we, relinquishing the material and approaching Spirit and Truth, find in spiritual consciousness all that we seek, all that we need, all that we can ever use.
At whatever point we may be in our departure from materiality, Christ, Truth, is showing us the way to the heaven of spirituality. Our Father has equipped us to walk in this way, to take the next step, and the next, and the next. As we progress, we discover that the spiritual understanding of Life is steadily expanding and that the material sense of it is just as steadily diminishing. Through Christian Science this understanding reaches self-completeness, in which the new heaven and new earth of St. John's vision appear. In this higher, purer realm, as Mrs. Eddy states, "The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness." Science and Health, p. 536.
