In one's search for Truth he may have progressed through orthodox Christianity, Christian Science, and Spiritualism--but, eventually, the Quest will lead him away from limited, organized public approaches, and bring him to the unrestricted freedom of the Presence of the Overself. Other movements, such as those mentioned, may be useful to beginners; but when some progress has been made, the path necessarily opens onto the Quest where it becomes unlimited, individual, and private.    (#1359)

Tyrolean Talk by P.B., June 1965: Short Path and Long Path

All ways of spiritual seeking divide into two classes. The first is basic, elementary, the second for more advanced people. The first for beginners is the Long Path. It takes a long time to get results, and a lot of work has to be done on it; much effort is necessary for it. The second is the Short Path. The results are more quickly got; it is an easier path, and requires less work. To the Long Path belongs the methodical yoga. It takes a lot of work to practise daily: building of character and removing of weaknesses and overcoming of faults, developing concentration of attention to stop the distraction of mind and to get control over thoughts, strengthening of willpower, and all the activities for the beginners. These are the earlier stages of meditation.

Meditation has two parts. The lower one belongs to the Long Path. Also, the religions are for the beginners and popular masses. They, too, belong to the Long Path. To the Short Path belong Christian Science, Ramana Maharshi's teachings, Vedanta, Krishnamurti's teaching, and Zen. They all say You Are GOD. The Long Path says instead: You are only a man. The one says that you are man and the other says that you are also really rooted in God.

Long Path--here is working through the ego. The student thinks he is the ego and develops concentration, aspiring to improve himself, getting more and more pure. He says: "I am doing this work." He is thinking that he is purifying himself and improving the quality of the ego. But it is still ego. He is rising from the lower to the higher part of the ego and becoming a spiritualized ego. He is looking for the Gurus (spiritual teachers).

Short Path--it is different because the idea "ego" does not come in, only the Overself, not the longing (which belongs to the Long Path), but the identification, not even aspiration.

Long Path has to do with progress and takes a time for it and therefore means moving in time, and it is the ego who is working.

Short Path is not concerned with time and therefore not with progress. Thinking only of the timeless Overself. No idea of progress, no desire, it does not matter. Real Self is always changeless. Progress implies change. All questions and problems disappear because the questioning (ego) intellect is not allowed to be active.

Now you understand the question of the Guru. On the Long Path the aspirant wants the Guru, he looks for a Guru, is depending on him, and the Guru helps him to progress. On the Short Path the Overself is the Guru and the aspirants depend directly only on the Overself. On the Short Path the Guru question does not come into consideration. Guru is outside themselves, but God is inside on the Short Path stage. The aspirants on the Short Path need not depend on a Guru. Intellectually they have freedom from the Guru. If a guru dies or disappears, they do not worry about it. There is a real reliance on God--no human being, but your Spirit.

Long Path--the aspirants are moving in shadows, there is not life but darkness, they are not in the light but in ignorance. Their reason is not enlightened. Because they are living in the ego they are living in spiritual ignorance, which is darkness.

Short Path--he lives in the Sunlight, because he lives in Truth, the only reality--like looking, being in the sun. As in Plato's story, he comes out of a cave, walking to the opening with his back turned to the opening of the cave, moving and seeing only the darkness. The other way is turning around to the mouth of the cave, seeing a little light, then more and more light. Even from the beginning there is still some light.

A question will be asked: Why does not every teacher teach the Short Path? The answer is: Because people have not got enough strength of character to give up the ego and are not willing to turn at once to the light. It is a sacrifice. To make this possible, the Long Path teaches them to make the ego weaker by graduated stages. In the Long Path the progress comes in, just to prepare them to reach a point where it is easier for them to give up the ego. This is one of the most important of the reasons. It makes the aspirant ready to benefit by the Short Path; otherwise he would not be able to travel on it. The second reason is because they have not the strength of concentration to keep the mind on the Overself. They may be able to keep it for one or two minutes, but they then fall back. Therefore it is necessary to develop the power of sustained concentration. Even if one sees the Truth, one must get the power to stay in the Truth and to be established in it.

Most people have strong attachments and strong desires for worldly things. These are in their way, obstructing their way on the path to Reality. This means that they want to keep attachments and desires that are coming from the ego, which they do not want to lose. Therefore the teacher gives first the Long Path, because most aspirants are not able to follow the Short Path. The Long Path exists to prepare them for it. There is no use for them to go on the Short Path if they have not got the philosophical understanding to practise it. Even if they were shown the Truth in the Short Path, they may, if unprepared by study and thinking philosophically, fail to recognize it. They have not learnt what Truth is and might not value it. They have no philosophical knowledge to see the difference between Truth or Reality and illusion or error. They have to understand Truth even intellectually. That is a part of the Long Path.

Another very important matter related to the Long Path: when people follow the Long Path and spend years working on it, many such persons after several years find they have not made the progress they have expected. In the beginning they have enthusiasm. They expect inner experiences giving power, knowledge, and self-control; but after many years they have not gained these things. On the contrary, tests, hard trials of the life come, death in the family, for instance, changes of the outside life, and so on. They are disappointed and say: "Why has God chosen me for suffering even when I follow the Path? Troubles come to me." They are disheartened. At this point one of three things may happen:

(1) They may give up the Quest altogether, for one year or many years, or all life long, and turn back to materialistic living.

(2) They may think they have taken to the wrong path, or are using wrong methods, or have the wrong teacher, and they look for another teacher and another way. But with the new teacher the results are the same because they are still within the circle of the ego. The ego prevents them from sufficiently deepening their state of light and wisdom.

(3) The third possibility may happen to them. When they themselves have tried so hard and did not succeed and feel too tired mentally and exhausted emotionally, they give up trying but they do not give up the Quest. They just sit passively and wait. Those who are in this last or third category are completely ready to enter the Short Path and should do it. Even beginners may enter the Short Path, but in practice they find it too hard.

The best way is from the beginning to make a combination of both. But this combination must be varied and adjusted to each person, because people are different. There is not one fixed rule for everyone. One person is suited for a little of the Short Path and more or longer of the Long Path; with the other person it is vice versa. With most people the combination is the best way. It depends partly on their feelings, their intuition, and advice given by teachers. In the end, everyone must come to the Short Path.

Contradictions between the two Paths: one is the ego and the other the Overself without ego. The Short Path is without plane, intuitive, like Sudden Enlightenment. On the Long Path they are looking step by step to get out of the darkness of their ignorance. The next important point: on the Long Path many students want experiences--mystical, occult, psychical ones. It is the ego wanting them and the satisfaction of progressing. The ego feels important. In the Short Path there is no desire for inner experiences of any kind. When you are already in the Real, there is no desire any more. For experiences come and go, but the Real does not. Now you see why the popular religions are only attempts to get people to make a beginning to find God, but are not able to go too far and too quickly. For those who are more developed and less bound to attachments, the teacher gives the Short Path. In the teachings of Jesus and Buddha we find both Paths. People have different stages of evolution and can therefore take what suits them. The teacher gives them what they understand from their level of understanding.

Popular religions are mixtures of the Long and Short Paths. But unfortunately they sometimes lead to confusion. In the Biblical sentence, "Before Abraham was, I AM," there are two meanings. The lower one means the reincarnation, the higher one means: I AM the Reality.

On the Short Path we do not care about reincarnation matters, we do not give them much importance. On the Short Path the aspirants need the philosophical study to understand only one point: What is Reality. It is necessary to understand the difference between the Illusion and the Reality. Every teacher's biggest difficulty is to get the students to understand that not only the world but also the ego is illusion. The aspirants do not know what the ego is. Therefore Jesus said: "If you want to find your true Self you have to deny yourselves," meaning deny the ego. Buddha said: "This is not I." The Buddha taught his monks to practise saying and thinking this mantram. There is much confusion about the two points if there is not the knowledge that all teachings fall into these two classes and if there is no understanding of the difference between them.

It is necessary to publish a new book. Even among people who have studied for many years, there is this confusion.

A very important point: because the ego lives in its own darkness, it cannot give light. The light may come only from the Overself, which is the Sun and Light of human existence. With the reason we can control the ego to some extent, but it is not possible to control the Overself. As regards Enlightenment, this is not coming from self-willed effort; it is coming only by what the Overself does to him. It is a matter of Grace--unpredictable--and it is the last secret. It is like the wind that comes you do not know where from and goes you do not know where to. It is a mystery. At the end we have to be like little children and leave our Enlightenment to the Father and give up our lives to him. On the Long Path the aspirant tries to improve himself. He experiences successes and failures, ups and downs. When he is disappointed, he gets melancholy. On the Short Path such a situation cannot arise, because he has faith like a little child. He has given up all his future to Overself-God and he has enough faith to trust to it. He knows he has made the right decision and therefore is always happy. He depends on this GRACE, he knows It, that It comes from the wisest being behind the world. Whatever will come, it will be the best. He is always relying on the Overself and having the joy in it.

The Short Path is a cheerful Path, a Path of happiness. Just before this begins, the aspirant may experience the Dark Night of the Soul. He feels utterly helpless, has no feeling of spiritual Reality. It is a melancholy time--no feeling of spirituality or longing for it. He is neither worldly nor spiritual. He feels alone and abandoned and separated by a wall from his Guru. He feels God has forgotten him. This dark night may last a short time or long years. He is unable to read spiritual things, or think about them. There is no desire for ordinary things either. He feels sad and disappointed and may even try suicide. In this unhappiness even those who love him cannot bring him comfort. In both hemispheres, Western and Eastern, there is a saying: the night is darkest just before dawn. He is on the lowest point. After that, the Short Path brings back the Joy--just like clouds moving away from the Sun.

The best advice is, first, that it will not last forever; he must have patience. Second, he must have hope. Then he reaches a better level than ever before. The Dark Night of the Soul does not come to every seeker. It is like a shadow thrown by the Sun. When the Sun appears in the subconscious, the shadows arise. But it is the beginning of a great inner change. It is not a wasted time; there is a great deal of work going on--but in the subconscious--to root out the ego. It is being done by the Overself. It is a sign of Grace, but the aspirant nevertheless feels unhappy.

In the Short Path there are usually much fewer exercises to practise. It is not necessary to sit down specially to meditate, but to try to be always in meditation. When you are busy outwardly, meditation naturally takes a different form than when you sit down for it. During the active part of the day, meditation takes the form of remembrance, always to try to remember the Overself: IT IS (that is enough). In the special meditation time our object is not to improve the character. During the meditation we have to empty our mind of thoughts as quickly as possible, let the mind become still. Ordinarily we live in our thoughts, in our little selves, even if the thoughts are spiritual. Therefore we have to keep away from all thoughts. If you want to think of the Overself, which is without any form, it is not possible. We try, but any idea, form, or shape is wrong. You cannot imagine it. So better not to try but to be still. You must not remain in the ego. "Be still [let go] and know that I AM GOD," says the Bible.

Wu-Wei, meaning inaction, not trying, is the highest teaching of Taoism and Zen and it means the same as what has just been explained. The Overself is already there. You as ego must get out of the way. Most people have to combine the Long Path with the Short Path--perhaps one day or one week (whatever the inner urge directs) on the Long Path and the other day on the Short Path. The attitude will be a passive one because all intellectual ideas have only a limited value. We must be now guided by our inner feeling of what we need, or by our intuition. If people ask whether they have to study, the answer is that the books deal with the thoughts. What they give is not the Truth, but only intellectual statements of it. It will only prepare them for a better understanding. When they study these books they will only get more thoughts. In the end they have to come to the point where they need no books. There are good books but we must always discriminate between wrong teachings and right teachings, which may get mixed together in the same book. This is the highest we can go with such studies.

When changing to contemplation, the thinking stops. This is the deepest point within oneself. This is why everybody has to search within himself and to find his own Path. It is not necessary to travel on the Long Path any longer time than that which prepares you for the Short Path. It is quite important to have living faith in the Overself and to become like a child and to have as much dependence on the Overself as a little child has on its parents. This faith should be in the power of the Spirit itself, not in any other human being. If the aspirant is constantly anxious about his faults or weaknesses, then he is on the wrong Path. He can try to remove them but cannot do this completely until he is able to give up the ego.

The basis of the Short Path is that we are always divine. It is with us already, it is no new thing, and we only have to try to recognize what is already there.    (#2707)

The Spirit-Energy: What are the lines of connection between the Overself and the body?

The first can be traced to thoughts. These express themselves through, and are in turn conditioned by, the physical brain and the spinal nerve system.

The second can be traced to emotions. These express themselves through, and are also conditioned by, the solar plexus and the sympathetic nerve system.

The third line can be traced to the vital forces. Although these permeate every organ of the body, and express themselves through every cell of it, they are specially centered in the heart, lungs, and genitals.

These three connections can plainly be seen. But they are not the whole. There is still a fourth line, although it cannot be traced in a manner acceptable to the sciences of anatomy and physiology, and very little is known about it anyway. The Indian yogis have named it variously: the Serpent Power, the Snake Force, World Energy. The Christian mystics have named it the Holy Ghost and the Pentecostal Power. To the monks of famed Mount Athos it is "the Athos Light;" to Saint John it was "the light of men;" and to Saint Luke, "the light of the body." The Chinese mystics have named it the Circulating Light.

It is really nothing other than the soul's Energy, the dynamic aspect of the still centre hidden deep in man. Its first activity is traceable in psychical and intuitive experiences outside the normal range as well as in abnormal physical phenomena; its final one is the supreme mystical experience which throws out awareness of the body altogether.

Thus through thought and feeling, physical vitality and spiritual vitality, there occurs a mutual interaction between the soul and flesh. Each affects the other. Each can, in abnormal conditions, affect the other even so dramatically as to appear miraculous in its power over the other.

The seven chief endocrine glands of the human body are associated with psychic centres in or near the spinal structure not visible to the physical eye. When the "Spirit-Force" is brought by the power of aspiration into the first centre, which is associated with the sacral gland, the body's vitality is markedly increased and its resistance to disease correspondingly increased too. The Hindu's texts picture it under the symbol of a lotus flower with four luminous petals.

With the entry of this energy into the second centre, associated with the prostate gland in men and the ovarian gland in women, the nervous system is strengthened, resistance to nervous disorders correspondingly increased, ability to concentrate mentally enhanced, and a resolute determination to rise up and succeed in some chosen endeavour manifested. In the third centre, associated with the adrenal gland, the power to influence other people's minds and even, to some extent, to heal them of sickness is developed. Along with this, the quality of fearlessness shows itself to an extraordinary degree. In the fourth centre, associated with the thymus gland, the "Spirit-Energy" ascends to the region of the heart and with that consciousness touches a higher plane of being. There is a progressive thinning down of egoism. With the fifth centre, associated with the Thyroid Gland, the emotions are at last balanced by, and poised in, the intuition. Along with this development, the illusion of time is banished. This gives a feeling of agelessness. Physically it bestows an improved power of speech in the sense that it becomes creative, forceful, and illuminating to its hearers. With the sixth centre, associated with the pituitary gland in the frontal region of the head, creative power is bestowed upon the concentrated Will and the spoken or written Word. With the seventh centre, associated with the pineal gland at the base of the brain, the illusion of the ego's reality is shattered, and the true self, or soul, is discovered. The ancient Indian books symbolize it in the form of a lotus with one thousand petals. The immense contrast of this with the small number of four of the first centre is intended to show that here at last is full and final illumination.    (#7536)

Philosophy does not ask us to attempt the impossible task of casting the body-thought entirely out of our consciousness at all times and in all places--which doctrines like Advaita Vedanta and Christian Science ask us to do--but to cease confining the I-thought to the body alone--which is quite a different matter.    (#10822)

Three ways of looking at the world, out of many: (1) young optimism, such as that of Christian Science, New Thought, etc., which solves problems by ignoring them or by dismissing them as imaginary; (2) individual optimism which believes that man can conquer all difficulties by supreme self-exertion of will; and (3) the fatalistic acceptance of all difficulties as unavoidable and unmodifiable.    (#12095)

People ask Why, if all is mind, if--as you say--our bodies are only ideas, can we not control regulate and improve our bodies by controlling regulating and improving our minds? Why not go further still, with Christian Science, and play with the possibility, not only of these achievements, but also of rendering the body immortal by thinking it so?

The answer is that nobody can deny the creative power of the mind. It may do all these things, except the last. That it will never do. Why? Because we live in a world whose fundamental law of being--as Buddha discovered and Jesus taught--is decay and death, change and transition. Indeed, it was because they were so painfully aware of these truths that they sought and found the only true way of escape for man and that was into Nirvana, into the Kingdom of Heaven--not into the physical body again! No Christian Scientist from the first founder down to the latest follower has ever achieved physical immortality, nor ever will. "Man will never tire of seeking immortality," wrote Dr. Alexis Carrel, whose biological researches, yet mystical sympathies, entitle him to speak with high authority. "He will not attain it, because he is bound by certain laws of his organic constitution. . . . Never will he vanquish death. Death is the price he has to pay for his brain and his personality."

Now as for the other things, the possibilities of spiritual healings of pathological conditions, miraculous mental cures of disease, and rapid acceleration of organic repairs through concentrated thinking, I repeat that we do not deny them. They have always existed, always been demonstrated. The relation between psychological and physical processes must certainly exist if our doctrine is true. But there are two other factors at work in human life which must also be considered and must not be ignored. What are they? The first is the factor of destiny, self-earned in previous lives and now awaiting physical expression in the present life. It has something to say, whether we like it or not. The second is the factor of renunciation. When you accept the doctrine that all is mind and each individual thing is but an ephemeral idea, you must perforce accept the doctrine that you as an individual, as the ego, are also an ephemeral idea. Now when you go further and declare that you want reality, you want to find eternal and not ephemeral life, you will have to abandon the fleeting idea for the eternal Mind in which it occurs: that is, you will have to sink the ego and merge its will in the greater universal will of the Infinite Being. Do this! What will you find next? That your personal desires have sunk with it, that your individual wishes and hopes and fears have dissolved and disappeared. The desire for bodily betterment, however very attractive, would have gone too. You cannot have a single desire and yet enter the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus pointed out. So good health, the care of your painful diseases, the healing of your disturbed organs--right, necessary, and desirable as they undoubtedly are--are nevertheless matters which you must try to effect in a desireless way; you may try to cure them but you must leave the result to the higher will. If you insist that the body must yield to your desires of a cure, to your personal desires, then your ego, not the real universal self, has got the upper hand and is directing you. In that case you will be no better off, for you have no guarantee of success even then. Most Christian Scientists experience a score of failures for every cure. Whereas if you do your best mentally and physically to put your body right, but do it impersonally--accepting failure, if it comes, with as much equanimity as you can--you will certainly be no worse off than the Christian Scientist so far as the possibilities of cure are concerned, and you will be infinitely better off so far as realizing truth is concerned, with all the wonderful peace that will bring in its train. This is one meaning of the words "Not my will but Thine be done" which Mrs. Eddy failed to learn.    (#12749)

How far the duration of human life can be extended is not known. The claims of hatha yogis are unauthenticated, while the theories of Christian Science and the experiment of Sri Aurobindo have still left it an uncertain matter. It is true that stories of centenarians being found in different parts of the world are not few and often pass unquestioned. But the difficulty of proving the date of birth usually remains. Most centenarians belong to the illiterate peasant class, to those who have not taken care to retain a correct knowledge of their age, for it was not so important to them as it is to the educated classes. There is hardly a record of payment by life insurance companies for the life of a centenarian. It is reasonable to ask, however, why, if the reparative and destructive elements in the body could be balanced, men should not live for centuries. In the absence of authenticated cases, we may only take the stand that Nature seems to have set her own limits to human life.    (#12751)

Another of the great errors for which Mrs. Eddy was responsible is the idea that physical death will ultimately be conquered by the practice of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy herself, the foremost exponent of her own system, could not demonstrate that conquest. No other Christian Scientist has yet demonstrated it. And I might add the prediction that no Scientist will ever do so. Here again there is a basis of actual truth behind the erroneous teaching, and the whole doctrine provides an apt illustration of the tendency of Christian Science to enter a region of misunderstanding the moment it attempts to apply its true principles to things of this earth.

There was a time in the far past of the human race, a time now lost in the dim mists of antiquity, when the life of man was stretched to a number of years far in excess of what it is today. That time has been hinted at by hoary legends of a Golden Age and by biblical stories of a pre-Flood race. Such a time will return in the cyclic course of our planet's history, but naturally it is faroff in the future. Nature herself is in no hurry. She has plenty of time to accomplish her purposes. And in those days men will again have a normal life-span of hundreds of years.

There exists in Asia a certain ancient knowledge--whose name may conveniently be translated as "The Art of Yogic Body Control"--which promises its votaries astonishing benefits in longevity. This age-old art is not the same as the alchemy of medieval Europe, when men sought vainly in experiments for the elixir of life. It is of such antiquity that those who hand it down tell us that it was born just after the time when the fabled gods had ceased to walk this earth. The exponents have almost disappeared from the world, but the tradition is widespread throughout the East that solitary individuals still practise it in remote and unfrequented places. So difficult are the exercises which belong to this system, so laborious are its practices, so ascetic the self-discipline which it involves, that one can understand why it has almost faded out of existence. It performs strange feats such as stopping blood circulation and lung action, permitting knives and daggers to be run like skewers through the living flesh without harming it and with an extremely rapid drying of blood, and even the burial alive of an entranced body beneath the ground and its safe resurrection several hours or some days later. The principal basis of these feats consists in making certain changes in the breath rhythm, changes which involve such risk to life and health that we are not prepared to assume the responsibility of describing here the exercises for the development of such powers. It is also necessary to live a celibate and chaste existence, to refrain from expending energy in worldly work and business, and to reduce diet to an astonishing minimum.

Because they demand a special and severely ascetic training which is the work of several years devoted wholly to this austere task, such feats are necessarily uncommon. The ordinary layman could hardly be expected to find the time for such training, nor is there any necessity for him to do so. These displays are certainly spectacular but have primarily only scientific, medical, and theatrical values rather than a general one. Meanwhile, Nature has set her brief term to the human body, and those whose attachment to the body is not overweening will resignedly accept that term while the others must do so unwillingly.

But this is a different matter--living in the fleshly body for ever and ever, a notion which must seem insupportable to many who find the present brief term of man's existence quite enough for them to cope with. If Nature cared so much to preserve the physical body of man, she would not introduce earthquakes, eruptions, hurricanes, famines, pestilences, and floods into the scheme of things. The fact that she does do so indicates rather that she regards his body as being only a fragment of the man, not as the full man himself. It was Mrs. Eddy's idea, of course, that in those days sin and sickness would also have disappeared from the world, so that our existence would be a halcyon one. It is a pretty picture, but man's true home is not in the tabernacle of flesh; it is elsewhere. The fleshly body is but a temporary abiding place at best, and when man has arrived at a state of perfect spirituality he will abandon it and use a vehicle more consonant with his high condition, an electromagnetic body that will more easily and more faithfully represent him. Yes, death will be conquered, but not in the way that Christian Scientists imagine. It will be conquered firstly, by extending the duration of human life to a constantly increasing period; and secondly, by completely abandoning the physical body for a subtler one.

Mary Baker Eddy saw clearly enough that the real inner man--his spiritual being--is undying and immortal. For her statement of this truth, she deserves much credit, although it is certainly not a novel one. But when she began to consider that inner being in relation to its transient earthly tenement, the body, she became confused and misunderstood the nature of that relationship. The hour of every man's death is fixed by a higher will than his own, by that power which some call destiny but which itself takes its rise out of the Infinite Power, and no Christian Science practitioner or ordinary physician has ever "saved" the life of anyone. A man's own Overself fixes the dates of certain major events in his life prior to the moment when he utters his first cry as a babe, and the date of his death is but one of those appointed hours.

The Dhammapada says: "Not in the sky, nor in the depths of the ocean, nor by entering the caverns of the mountain, nowhere in the world can such a place be found where a man might dwell without being overpowered by death."

We are as flies on the wheel of the Universe. For all our loud buzzing it still rolls along on its own path. And yet these people confidently imagine they set the great Laws of Destiny at naught, and interfere with the workings of the Cosmic Plan.    (#12757)

Christian Science, like Sri Aurobindo, sets up the goal of physical immortality. Neither has yet succeeded in turning this from a theoretical into a demonstrable achievement. I believe, with the Buddha, that neither of them ever will. But this is something which the future must settle. What we can settle with certainty now is that the goal is inconsistent with the general teaching. For in the case of Christian Science, matter is ardently proclaimed to be unreal. Why then all this bother to immortalize a material body? Why should any consistent Christian Scientist be so attached to an admittedly false concept of his own consciousness as to wish to perpetuate it for all eternity? And in the case of Sri Aurobindo, the arch-exponent of yoga, we ask why, if the attainment of the divine consciousness is the declared goal of yoga, death should not be regarded as being the failure to seek this consciousness and true immortality as being its successful realization? It is perfectly true, as Christian Science asserts, that there is a world of being where error, evil, and sickness are quite unknown and also true that man can penetrate and dwell in this world. It is, however, quite untrue to assert that he can thereby abolish his life in the lower world where error, evil, and sickness do exist all around him. He will, in fact, have to carry on a double-sided existence. Within, all will be harmony, goodness, health. Without, much will be discord, baseness, and disease. He can liberate himself from the flesh and its environment, but only in his attitude towards them. Both will still be there. He can, by intense inward concentration resulting in a trance-like state, think them out of his existence completely for a time, but not for all time. Nor can he change their character; that is, he cannot convert the body into a tree in actuality, nor a tree into a river.    (#12758)

Whereas Christian Science denies the reality of a diseased condition and doesn't deny the physical body altogether, philosophy denies only the materiality of the physical body and accepts the existence of the condition. Again, whereas Christian Science asserts that physical sickness was never given a place in God's scheme of things, philosophy says that it was given a place and fulfils a part of the divine purpose in our human evolution from a lower to a higher state of consciousness.    (#12759)

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.    (#12765)

I prefer to take truth from Buddha rather than from Mrs. Eddy. As against her claim that Christian Science could demonstrate immortality in the flesh, Buddha declared: "That which, whether conscious or unconscious, is not subject to decay and death, that you will not find."    (#12782)

Pain and suffering, sin and evil, disease and death, exist only in the world of thoughts, not in the world of pure Thought itself. They are not illusions, however, but they are transient. Whoever attains to pure Thought will also attain in consciousness to a life that is painless, sorrow-free, sinless, undecaying, and undying. Being above desires and fears, it is necessarily above the miseries caused by unsatisfied desires and realized fears. But at the same time he will also have an accompanying consciousness of life in the body, which must obey the laws of its own being, natural laws which set limitations and imperfections upon it. This much can be said to be the element of truth contained in some theoretical doctrines of Vedantic Advaita and Christian Science.    (#12790)

Although Mary Baker Eddy--of whom I am a great admirer--was quite correct in saying that the Real Self is free from sickness, pain, and suffering, the simple denial--by the individual--of these obviously present symptoms will often fail to banish them. Philosophy takes a broader view: it does not attempt to deny the undeniable. It recognizes that all prolonged or intense suffering, being karmically self-earned--whether in this lifetime or in a former one--carries with it a message. This message must be learned and actively taken to heart while, at the same time, every available means--physical, mental, and spiritual--within reason should also be applied in the hope of relieving the suffering and restoring normalcy. The practice of Christian Science is one part of these means, and a most valuable part, but still only a part.    (#12882)

It is not possible for me to agree with the statement that mentalist doctrine could banish disease if it were firmly established in the race consciousness. Is this also the Christian Science view? Such a statement would be quite correct if the body-idea were wholly a human creation. But it is not, for the World-Mind (God, if you like) or Nature is also responsible for it. The individual mind and the cosmic mind are in indissoluble connection, and out of their combined activity the human world-idea is produced. It would be correct to say, however, that the redirection of thought and feeling would largely help to eliminate disease. As the race learns to substitute positive for negative thoughts, aspiration for passion, and concentration for distraction, it will inevitably throw off many maladies that originate in wrong attitudes.    (#12888)

Just as philosophy seeks a full rounded development of the psyche in its approach to spiritual self-realization, so does it seek a full adequate treatment in its approach to the problem of curing sickness. It recognizes that even if a sickness began with evil thoughts or wrong feelings or disharmonious courses of action, these have already worked their way into and affected the physical body and brought about harmful changes in it, either causing its organs to work badly, or introducing poisons into its blood system, or even creating malignant growths in its tissues. Therefore physical means must also be used to treat these physical conditions, as well as the spiritual means to get rid of wrong thoughts and discordant feelings. Both methods should be applied together to make an adequate treatment. Consequently philosophy does not, like Christian Science, deny the utility or necessity of ordinary medical treatment. On the contrary, it welcomes such treatment, provided it is not narrow-minded, materialistic, or selfishly concerned more with fees than with healing.    (#13011)

The practice of disidentification from the body detailed in The Quest of the Overself is not the same kind of mental treatment as Christian Science. The latter begins and ends with dogmatics, whereas the other is a rising by strict reasoning from the known facts to the unknown. Constant and repeated thinking about these arguments must go on until they are your own, until you have achieved thorough conviction.    (#13026)

Is there a science of spiritual healing? If there is, we can discover it only by freeing ourselves from the cultist standpoint; for, with conflicting doctrines and different methods, Christian Science, Spiritism, Roman Catholicism, Hypnotism, and Couéism have yet produced similar results. It follows that these healings do not prove all their claims but may prove a part.    (#13036)

It will have to be recognized that, since we exist simultaneously on two levels, all our problems of suffering and sickness must be looked at from two points of view if they are to be adequately seen and grasped. There is the common and familiar immediate one, which deals with them as they are in appearance. There is the uncommon and unfamiliar alternate one, which deals with them as they are in reality. An orthodox physician treating a case of disease takes the first viewpoint. A Christian Science practitioner treating the same case takes the second one. Neither takes a wholly adequate and truly philosophical viewpoint.    (#13037)