Excerpts from
LIFE IS FOR LIVING
by Eric
Butterworth
Order
in Adobe
PDF eBook or printed form for $6.95 (+ printing charge)
Book
Description
Life for most persons consists of the number of things that
happen around or to them -- if these things are good, they are happy;
if they are less than good, they are miserable. Of course, we are more
than reactors to outside stimuli -- each person is a channel for the
expression of the Infinite Life of God, an actor, acting out into
expression "the Imprisoned Splendor " within.
Introduction
SOME YEARS AGO I ran across this simple and yet cogent observation by
Elsie Robinson: "Things may happen around you and things may happen to
you, but the only things that really count are the things that happen
in you." Life for the average person consists of the number of things
that happen around or to him. If these things are good, he is happy; if
they are less than good, he is miserable.
On this level of experience, man is simply a sponge, and life has
meaning only in what he draws from the world about him. Yet the sage of
old said, "As he thinketh within himself, so is he." In other words,
all that really counts is what we think about what happens around and
to us. It is here, in the realm of mind, that we are (or can be)
masters of ourselves and our worlds.
Of course, man is more than a reactor to outside stimuli. Man is a
channel for the expression of the infinite love of God, a focus of the
infinite life of God, a creative activity of the infinite Mind of God.
Man is not just a reactor, he is an actor, acting out into expression
"the imprisoned splendor" within him. Life is for living!
At the circumference of life we tend to think of spending our
substance, exhausting our ideas, con-suming our time, depleting our
energy, and re-lentlessly moving on to age, deterioration, and death.
In "the wisdom of the world that is foolishness with God" we have
placed the emphasis on caution and conservation and security. But life
is for living! Life cannot be hoarded, nor can any of the gifts of God.
Life is for living, for expressing, for unfolding. And if we are busy
expressing what we are, we will not become anxious or troubled
concerning what we have or do not have.
This is not a problem-solving book, though we hope it will be a problem
dis-solving influence. We want to turn your attention from the problems
of life to a "contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point
of view." Every individual has a built-in capacity to meet and conquer
any of the challenges or changes that life may seemingly present.
"Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." We want to
emphasize the point that life is not just an arena in which to solve
problems. Life is for liv-ing. Problems are simply opportunities to
"stir up the gifts of God" within you, drawing forth more of your
innate potential. When the problems are mastered, as they surely will
be, forget "that which is behind" and get on with the joyous business
of living.
"Cast away from you all your transgressions, wherein ye have
transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will
ye die . . .? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,
saith the Lord Jehovah: wherefore turn your-selves, and live."
Chapter
1
A New Dimension of Life
There is a dimension of life that Jesus referred to as "Hfe mote
abundant," and He said that He came to help us to find it. We find it
on the journey from rime into eternity. Life is not simply a jour-ney
between two points on an endless highway. Life is eternal, and we are
alive in eternity now. Why not live fully, abundantly? After all, life
is for living.'
LIFE HAS ALWAYS BEEN the most serious subject of inquiry to scientists,
philosophers, and theo-logians. What is life? Why is life? What and why
is death ? Many have offered answers, but few are more than conjecture.
As someone once said, "Life is the art of drawing sufficient
conclusions from insuffi-cient premises."
To the average individual, however, life is not something to be
studied, but something to wade through as best he can. Life to this
person is a game of chance. He is here without his own consent, and at
some unknown time in the future he may be just as unceremoniously
removed hence. Life to this per-son is a transient experience that
begins with infancy and ends with death. Life is a series of changes
over which he has no control, in the face of which he usually says with
a shrug, "Well, that's life for you."
Of course, you who read this, you who are on the quest of Truth, are
not "average." You have a feel-ing, even if it is not backed up by
understanding, that the follies and foibles, the challenges and crises
of human experience do not reveal the whole story. You instinctively
know that there is something more, something deeper, an added dimension
that eludes the sight that sees only the appearance.
One thing is certain; life is not physical, but simply flows through
the physical as a vessel. Life is invisible. No one has ever seen it.
Life, like an idea, cannot be touched, tasted, smelled, seen, nor
heard. Perhaps this is the key; perhaps life is an idea in the great
Mind of the Infinite. As is the case with an idea, all that we see are
its visible manifes-tations. We see it coming into birth. We see what
we call life: gay, pleasant, and joyful—or sad, unpleas-ant, and
sorrowful.
"Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by."
In his epistle to the Philippians Paul said, "For to me to live is
Christ." This has been given all sorts of theological overtones, but
could he not have meant, quite simply, that life is the evidence
o£ a divine idea, which he called the Christ, finding its
expression in us and as us? Even as I know the wind is passing by
because the trees are bowing their heads, so I know the activity of
God-life is here be-cause I am here.
I have seen many persons whose lives have been clouded by the verdict
of a hopeless medical prog-nosis. Perhaps one never really appreciates
life until he stands face to face with the fear of death. Full and
complete life, abundant life, may depend on the degree to which we
achieve a victory over ourselves in such an encounter.
A man had been hospitalized after an attack of abdominal pains.
Preliminary examination seemed to indicate a tumor, which he was warned
could be malignant, and in his case could be incurable. For several
days he lived under a cloud of gloom and fear, awaiting the outcome of
an exploratory opera-tion and a biopsy. One morning the doctor came
into his room, put his hand on the man's shoulder, and said, "Friend,
you are going to live."
This man said it was as though he had just come out of a dark tunnel
into bright sunlight. He heard music in the sound of the birds that he
had never heard before. The sky outside his window was a richer blue;
the clouds were a more billowy white; the flowers on his stand were
more beautiful and fragrant. His family, his friends, those with
whom he had business relationships suddenly seemed more important, more
beloved than ever before. Instantly, life had become a great and joyous
adventure.
Lying in bed during the days of his convales-cence, this man did some
deep thinking. He began to see that he had been living on the surface
of things. His life and his attitudes toward life had lacked depth. For
the first time he seemed to understand what life really is—not the
transient experience be-tween birth and death, but the finite encounter
with-in an infinite and never-ending life. He was as a man reborn into
a new way of life, a new dimension of life.
I suspect that this is what Paul had in mind when he said, "Awake, thou
that sleepest . . . and Christ shall shine upon thee." Open your eyes
and see be-yond appearances, see beneath the surface, see that life is
actually an idea in God-Mind, and that you are that idea in expression.
Jesus said: "I came that they may have life, and may have it
abundantly." And, as if to reveal how we can actually demonstrate that
abundant life for ourselves, He said: "Look up, and lift up your heads"
and "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
"Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not?" In other
words: "You have been appropriating life on the surface only. Open your
eyes and see with your soul; see life as a changeless reality; see a
new dimension of life."
This is the object of our quest in Truth—the realization of the
fullness of life, the unbroken circle of eternal experience. Robert
Browning had caught that vision, for he said, "On the earth the broken
arcs, in the heaven the perfect round." The goal is not the experience
of life, but the "isness" of life, life without beginning and without
end.
Not even human birth nor human death inter-feres with this larger idea
of life any more than turning on the light or turning it off can
interfere with electricity. You do not change the unchangeable electric
energy of the universe when you turn on the lights or turn them off, or
when you run the elevator up or run it down. All that you do by these
acts is to appropriate energy or stop appropriating it. No matter
whether your experience of life is full and complete or narrow and
limited, the life idea that is in you and is you remains full and
complete.
Why then do we have sickness? How can we ac-count for deterioration and
age and death? In truth, there can be no sickness in life; there can be
no de-terioration in life; there can be no death in life. But in
experience persons do manifest these conditions. Why?
Consider the five fingers on your hand. There is a flow of blood from
the heart into and through them. If you were to strangulate that flow
at the main artery leading from the heart, none of the fingers would
have circulation of blood. They would soon wither and decay. If we
liken the heart to the divine source of life, let us say that you can
never stop the flow from the main artery. It is always active; its flow
is constant. But you can put a rubber band around a finger and cut off
the circulation in that part, with the same debilitating effect.
However, you know the strangulation is in the finger and not in the
heart. To correct the condition, you do not have to make the
bloodstream flow. You need only loosen the band and let it flow.
Many doctors have long held that all sickness in human experience is
caused by a congestion or strangulation of the flow of the life forces
through the body. This belief has led to research into the mental and
emotional factors in sickness and health. Dr. Hans Selye, of the
Universite de Montreal, has been experimenting with what he calls the
"stress" factor in life. He has proved that the body itself is equipped
to maintain itself in health, to cure itself of disease, and to remain
youthful by successfully coping with the factors that bring about what
we call "old age." He has demonstrated that all sickness or weakness or
deterioration originates with the strangulating effect of the
stress-producing factors of fear and worry and tension. Such studies in
the medical field are pointing clearly and inescapably to the validity
of health through spiritual means, through a conscious awareness of the
stress-free spiritual dimension of life.
There are about three billion people in the world today. They are all
supplied by the same spiritual life blood. They all use the same Mind
and live by the same Spirit. If something could remove every concept of
fear, of lack, of insecurity, of sickness and death, the Spirit would
flow into every mind and body unobstructed. Who is to say that someday
this will not occur? The only thing that will accomplish this is the
universal recognition of the larger view of life and of the indwelling
restoring and renewing activity of the Spirit of God. This is the great
work for Truth. This is the "gospel" that we are called to preach and
teach, "for the healing of the nations."
In The Revelation of John we read: "To him that overcometh, to him will
I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God." To
overcome means, in a very real sense, to come up over the old mortal
beliefs, to correct the thoughts that fall short of the divine ideal.
This does not mean, as it might seem, that a person must achieve
perfection before he can "eat of the tree of life." The very act of
rising to a higher state of consciousness is over-coming. Every time
you speak the word of Truth, you take a step in overcoming and you eat
of the tree of life.
Actually, eating of the tree of life and overcom-ing are one and the
same thing. One is the key to the door of life; the other is the will
to turn the key in the lock. The Revelator is not saying that God will
give you a prize if you reach the goal. He is simply assuring you that
if you really want to be healed or prospered or transformed you can be,
for it requires only that you know the Truth, and that the word of
Truth is already within you seeking expression. "The word is very nigh
unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."
The important thing is that we must go the way of overcoming if we want
help or healing in life's challenges. We cannot be healed by thinking
about sickness, nor can we be prospered by thinking about lack. We
cannot achieve our goals by thinking about our mistakes, nor can we
realize the fullness of life by thinking about or fearing death. Every
time we dwell on a thought of limitation about our life—a thought of
disease or age or death—we cause a re-striction in the flow of life.
The strange thing is that often a person may be praying for healing and
all the while restricting the flow of life and whole-ness because he is
fearfully dwelling on the condi-tion he is afraid of and does not want.
He is like the classic cartoon that shows the man trying to water his
lawn with a trickle of water, not realizing that he is standing on the
hose. Shakespeare wrote:
"We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers."
Unfortunately, we do not always lose these prayers. Result: the
frustration of constant prayer about a situation that shows no progess
and, in fact, often gets worse. If we want healing or help of any kind,
we must come up over the negative state of consciousness, speak the
word of Truth, and keep the mind stayed on Truth. It will take
disciplined effort. But if you really want healing, there is little use
fooling yourself. Even as when you want water you turn on the faucet
full, so if you want a new experience of vitalizing life, turn on the
"faucet" full by speaking the word, "I am life." Speak the word
repeatedly, enthusiastically, joyously. Then give it meaning by acting
as if you really believe it to be true now.
It is truly startling to see so many people who are lifeless, listless
beings, lacking in vitality and energy and enthusiasm for
life—startling, when we know that the radiant life of God is within
each one awaiting expression. Yet how wonderful it is to know that
every one of these individuals can be transformed, healed, revitalized,
"changed, in a mo-ment, in the twinkling of an eye." Seeming miracles
of transformation have come when individuals have opened their eyes to
a new dimension of life.
The next time you feel weak, tired, lifeless, de-pressed, "down in the
dumps," affirm for yourself, "I am radiant with life and vitality."
Even as you speak the words, know that you are one with a life that is
larger and deeper than that which you are experiencing. Speak the word;
open the floodgates; let life pour forth unrestricted.
It is startling to discover how many people ac-quiesce in the idea of
death, and begin to make all sorts of preparations for death, even at a
time when they should be enjoying the fullness of life and youth. Death
has no place-in the fullness of life, and the person who holds to the
life idea cannot die. "The wages of sin is death" refers not simply to
moral turpitude, but to the general consciousness of thoughts that fall
short of the divine ideal. The human mind says, "After all, we all must
go some-time," But this is a sin in the larger sense, because it fails
to perceive the divine idea of life in which there is no death. What we
think of as death is simply the movement of the soul experience of life
from one vessel of experience into another vessel. Because we acquiesce
in the inevitability of death, we "stand on the hose" and limit the
flow of life into and through our body temple—actually causing the
experience of deter-ioration.
One man of seventy years was very sick and had resigned himself to
dying. In the belief that he was too old, he was "ready to go." At the
request of a loved one he agreed to let a Truth teacher talk to him. To
him it was like a priest administering the last rites. But something
strange occurred. He caught hold of an idea: "You don't have to
die, for the same life is in you that is in the strongest and young-est
person alive." It was no conversion or emotional experience of
transformation, but there was a change. Suddenly he saw a new dimension
of life. He felt a new desire to live, accompanied by the faith that he
could be healed. He is still alive and strong today, many years later.
He says: "I don't completely under-stand what happened. I guess it was
just that the thought that time had run out was canceled with the
realization that God's time never runs out, for God and His life are
eternal."
Charles Fillmore says: "If you want to know all the mysteries of life,
study life and put out of your mind every thought about death or the
condition of the dead. Then through the law of thought formation you
will build up in yourself such a strong consciousness of life that its
negative (or absence) will ever be to you nonexistent. Jesus meant this
when He said, 'If a man keep my word, he shall never see death.' "
We must stop thinking of life as a journey be-tween two points on an
endless highway. It is this subconscious feeling that leads to hurry
and rush and tension, and the "stress" that restricts the flow of the
vital forces through our body temple. Life is eternal, and we are alive
in eternity now.
Most of us are willing to admit that immortality is a fact that will be
proved after we die. But this was not the teaching of Jesus. We are
told that Jesus "brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel." To bring a thing to light, you make it mani-fest. Jesus
revealed that immortality is not a post-mortem experience, but a
present reality. He did not add much to the world's knowledge if He
merely came to preach immortality after death. The Phari-sees already
believed that. The Egyptians had be-lieved it in more ancient times.
The Israelites had long believed in the immortality of the soul. Jesus
came to reveal immortality now. "Now is the ac-ceptable time; behold,
now is the day of salvation,"
Immortality and eternity, then, are actually the new dimension of life.
In this eternity domain, or in Divine Mind, concurrent with his
manifest experi-ence, man is perfect beyond his imperfection, whole
beyond his sickness, intelligent beyond his ignorance, and opulent
beyond his poverty and lack. In God, in Truth, in the kingdom of
heaven, health, wealth, harmony, peace are constant, and they are now.
They are ours to the degree that we can open our eyes to see them,
sharpen our faith to believe them, and call forth the will to accept
them and use them. It is not a matter of whether we are in New York or
Los Angeles or Jerusalem, or whether we are thirty or sixty or ninety
years of age. It is simply a matter of where we are in consciousness in
the realization of our oneness with God, with the fullness of life,
with immortality.
Modern scientists are suggesting that life is not sustained by matter,
that life is not contained in us but that it courses through us. It is
interesting to note that water is more necessary to life than food, for
we can get along without food much longer than without water. We can
also live much longer with-out water than we can live without air.
Beyond air, what? Scientists are suggesting that the real key to life
is to be found in this "interpenetrating ether." Can we not see the
quest for Truth in the fields of science leading to answers that are
nonphysical and nonmaterial? Unquestionably the scientists of today are
discovering God and a new dimension of life.
Jesus said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not." How well this
testifies to the fact that His great strength and sustenance came not
from the food on the tables of the many festive gatherings He attended,
but from His retreat experiences in the wilderness when He went apart
to pray. He was strong because He had tapped an inner resource, a "well
of water springing up unto eternal life."
This is why Jesus placed such great emphasis on prayer. What is prayer
but the appropriation of the fullness of life, eating of the tree of
life, and open-ing our eyes to a new dimension of life? The
prayer-conditioned life is the life of vitality and joy and confidence.
When we live by the Spirit, we enjoy better health and we experience
increasing longevity.
Remember, you too are going to live! Why not live fully, abundantly?
Eat regularly of the tree of life whose roots are planted in the
divine. Only in this way shall we come to know what life really is.
Only in this way shall we understand and live within a new dimension of
life.
Order
complete book in Adobe
PDF eBook or printed form for $6.95 (+ printing charge)
|
