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(I planned to go into greater
detail about how Charles Fillmore
related the 12 powers to the body
in this month's piece, but this
will have to come at a later
date! What follows is what I feel
I want to say this month.)
The Buddhist term "no-self" is
essentially saying what, in
Unity, we are saying in our term
"no SEPARATE self."
Sometimes many of us report
our difficulty in applying the
idea of "selflessness". Our
problem here is when we equate
self with individuality, and we
can't understand how we can
possibly deny our
individuality.
To clear this up, it is
necessary to explain the
distinction between self and Self
in the Christian/Unity
teaching.
Our human tendency is to think
of self as separate from others -
and when it seems that life is
not working out and everything is
against us, we tend to feel
separate from God too!
Jesus makes it clear that the
problem is thinking in terms of
separateness. I will cite just a
few of His statements. In John
14:20, He says,
"At that day ye shall
know that I am in my Father,
and ye in me, and I in you."
In John 12:24, He points out
that we do not produce fruit
until we blend with God. We
cannot go it alone:
"Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Except a corn of
wheat fall into the ground and
die, it abideth alone: but if
it die, it bringeth forth much
fruit."
And then in John 15:5, He
says,
"I am the vine, ye
are the branches . . ."
He extends our oneness with
God individually and makes it
plural: "ye are branches,"
branches in the one God or Christ
vine! John 15:4 reads like
this:
"Abide in me,
(perhaps better rendered "Ye
abide in me") and I in you. As
the branch (note, singular)
cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine;
no more can ye, except ye
abide in me."
The idea of self or ego is our
human perception. When we unfold
spiritually, we come to realize
that each of us is an individual
expression of God and that we are
one with all other individuals.
We learn that all that we are and
do is the expression of God (this
is what Jesus says clearly!) and
then we see that as all of us
work together as God's team, we
experience life as abundant good
and as peace and harmony.
In Unity we speak of this
individuality as Christ in me and
Christ in you. This is our
application of what I have
written in this piece and
established from Jesus' own
teaching.
Our belief is that each of us
is a Self - an individual
expression of God, which we call
"soul" - and that we live
eternally as souls - spiritual
beings. Death does not negate
this, but necessitates our
entering into a new form -
perhaps in a different dimension,
possibly in a reincarnation on
Earth. Unity teachers do not feel
it is necessary for us to attempt
to spell out or predict what the
eternal life process or continuum
is. Here is where we feel
satisfied with a complete letting
go and letting God.
We see our rising out of the
consciousness of a separate self
as the great overcoming of
humanity, the first fruits of
which is the life, death,
resurrection, and ascension of
Jesus Christ.
This is what our recent
celebration of Easter
celebrates!
Don
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