The characteristics stamped upon earthly life are in part unpleasant, miserable, and painful. Sickness and struggle are not merely the result of wrong thinking, as Christian Science avers, but native to and almost inevitable in our existence. Were it otherwise, we would be so satisfied that we would never aspire to a higher existence, but anxieties goad us eventually into seeking inner peace, worldly troubles stir us to seeking an unworldly refuge, fated frustrations drive us to seeking diviner satisfactions, and bodily illness to seeking spiritual joy. Ours is the world of the imperfect. The perfect reality could never be expressed amid its limitations. No one has ever "demonstrated" conquest over death, or complete freedom from human afflictions before death. These things are inherent in our lot. Through death's presence we are aroused to the need of eternal life; through afflictions to the need of eternal serenity. They exist only in the spirit. So the health and prosperity we can demonstrate are essentially spiritual.
-- Notebooks Category 10: Healing of the Self > Chapter 1 : The Laws of Nature > # 53
