Harmony or Discord?

Rotterdam Symphony

One of us may think something is beautiful, and another may not. It's my understanding that some people do not enjoy music, and may even find it off-putting. How can this be? It seems so odd, as I sit here listening to the Rotterdam Symphony performing Tchaikovsky ‘s Nutcracker. But I listened to a book by Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia, which documents many instances of people's ability to hear and/or play music changing after traumatic physical events. I thought it was pretty cool when someone woke up from a coma and wanted to do nothing but play the piano, even though they had never played before. On the other end of the spectrum, it was horrid for the man who heard dissonance when playing the violin he had dearly loved before a car accident. This has caused me to wonder about what I think I see and hear, and the possibility that others don't see or hear the same thing. I've written before about everyone seeing a rainbow differently, depending on where they are in respect to it. I know that someone may tell me something and I can take it totally opposite of how it was meant. But to hear music differently? We are, indeed, an interesting species! 

"Material beliefs and spiritual understanding never mingle. The latter destroys the former. Discord is the nothingness named error. Harmony is the somethingness named Truth." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 176

I Am That

 

I Am That 

There is only one mistake you are making:


you take the inner for the outer and outer for the inner.


What is in you, you take to be outside you


and what is outside, you take to be in you.


The mind and feelings are external,


but you take them to be intimate.


You believe the world to be objective,


while it is entirely a projection of your psyche.


That is the basic confusion . . .

By: Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Mary Baker Eddy quote:
"The inharmonious belief does not create an inharmonious condition. The belief of lack is the lack. The belief of disease is the disease. That is why the body seems to change as man's thinking changes. It is simply as beliefs of disease and imperfections fall away, and our thinking is corrected and held true to Truth, so that mental chaos and confusion no longer cloud our vision, we see the body as God sees it, as it eternally is. Then it stands revealed to us in its beauty and its glory, the temple, not made with hands. All that our ignorance does is to affect our vision, or view of things. It does not change anything that God has made.

'We do not handle substance through our personal thought to change it. We only see according to our thought, our degree of enlightenment. Walt Whitman said, "The world is jagged and broken,  to him who is jagged and broken," to him whose mental realm is dark. If one's thought is ignorant and unenlightened, it changes his vision as a cloud of mist. As he looks through the cloud he sees this world, the body, all things, distorted, abnormal and wrong.

'If the mental atmosphere is dark and dense, we see but dimly and are not able to perceive the perfection that is. Man does not by mental effort bring God into manifestation, neither does he through wrong thinking prevent God's manifestation. God IS and God is manifest, and it is not in the power of unenlightened personal thought or mental effort to obstruct or hinder the activity of God, or to mar or to deface the perfection of God's creation."
From a statement copyrighted by Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy at the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. January 19, 1886

Loss is Gain

 

photo credit: Blake Lasater

My son and his wife recently had a baby. Little Torin decided to make an appearance a couple of weeks before his due date, so mom and dad weren’t quite organized for the event. Actually, when Kailey went into labor, they were moving furniture into the house and everything was topsy turvy. When they came home, someone mentioned that their life was “in shambles”. My son found this to be humorous because their life has never been better!! This serves as a perfect reminder to us all: no matter what is happening around us, it’s our perceptions which create our reality. Aaron only saw the beauty of his wife and child, not the mess surrounding them physically. We can all relate this truth to events in our own lives, can we not? A debilitating health situation can help us to look for new avenues to travel. When I lost my leg a few years back, there was a newspaper article written entitled “Havens’ New Walk”. I love this new way of walking as much as the last one! If not for this “loss”, I wouldn’t have the joys I’m now experiencing. And I am grateful…

“O make me glad for every scalding tear,

         For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!

Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear

         No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.”

From the poem, Oh, Gentle Presence — by Mary Baker Eddy 

A Clean Slate

 

No matter what you believe in, you can find a group of people who think the way you do. I recently heard a man explaining that more harm can be done by the truth than by out-and-out lies. WHAT?? The example he gave is a web page devoted to instances of black people physically attacking white people. Every day they post more instances of this violent behavior, along with rhetoric warning us of the consequences of “us” allowing “them” to “get by” with it. While these things actually happened, they are being presented in a way which may cause fear and suggest retaliation. Our learned behavior of tribalism is not conducive to peaceful living. The myriad of activities which pit us against each other, or set up sides for us to group together with like-minded people —- years of these practices have made us an adversarial society, and it feels wrong. So I’m going to visualize a world where we all trade our beliefs for a blank slate on which to see what is actually happening, without our biased perceptions interpreting everything. Let me know how a clean heart and head show you the world!

“Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.” Mary Baker Eddy- Science and Health Page 96:21

To Change or Not to Change

 

Time has always seemed elastic, but nowadays it’s pliable beyond past experience. To some of us, these days creep by in a fog of repetition; for others, they zip along, full of excitement and expectation. Looking at the few people on my street, it’s possible to imagine the world from our microcosm. One woman who was extremely social, living to dress up for parades, while participating in activities of three churches, seems depressed and lost without these events. One man fell deeper into drugs and alcohol and is now in rehabilitation, trying to save his life. Two neighbors have a thriving business, selling plants and doing landscaping. They are busier and seem happier than ever. Perhaps we’re all learning things about ourselves during these times of change, as we either acclimate to the "new normal", or try to stay with the ways of the past. Personally, I feel I’ve been practicing all my life for this seclusion. It’s nice, and when I must be active in the “outside” world, I need solitude to rejuvenate. We all have a role in the revolution of thought which we see unfolding. Much needs to be done, and we who are not afraid of change are leading the way. Exciting times, indeed!

“The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 584:4

Living Arrows Sent Forth

 Henri Cartier Bresson - Rue Mouffetard, 1954, ©MoMa.

My oldest son turned 35 today; two days ago he became a parent for the first time. I’m in love with a baby I’ve never met, and it’s a wonder-filled experience! Often, when I have too many things running around in my head, I turn to Kahlil Gibran. And he has guided me to peace today with this beautiful writing. I am grateful. Namaste…

“Your children are not your children.
They are sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. 
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth...."

by Khalil Gibran

“When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God is within you;’ that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 476:28-32

Seeing Two Worlds?

 

Crystal Bridges exhibit - photo by Aaron Springston

The changes we have witnessed in our lifetime have been exciting and (to take a phrase from the ‘70s) mind blowing! Decades ago, when we were told about the Age of Aquarius and more recently when 2012 was explained as a shift in consciousness, I'm not sure we thought there would be any real change in our lives. People who are looking for purely material reasons to explain the huge changes in everything from politics to weather are feeling helpless and overwhelmed. When looked at from a different perspective, we see that changes are necessary in order to facilitate the realization of this new earth we are more-than-ready to embrace. As with any shift in thought, some are afraid and working to hold on to old ways. But it is impossible to "see two worlds". I choose Love!

“During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 96:31-4