Essay 21: SHOWING AND KNOWING

“There is nothing the wandering attentions of mind are struggling after but to see the Absolute.” (Esoteric Philosophy page 75:4)

One of the many statements by John the Baptist that rings through eternity is, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) As we transition from the realm of Kingdom 2 consciousness into that of Kingdom 3, we find more wisdom, more intimacy, more power and more necessity in this simple statement than ever before. Emma calls this movement a transition from what we want or need to do to “Thou art now working through me to will and to do that which ought to be done by me.” (12 Lessons in Spiritual Healing, #4)

As we consistently lay down our rights to ourselves, we move from “showing forth” consciousness to “bringing forth” knowing. Showing forth is the God we claim to be true through our own human ego and mental activity. In Religious Science, this is known as “demonstration.” At this level, our prayers are of the world and in the world for the most part and tend to squeeze God through a very small conduit of our needs, desires, and free will. In a very real sense, the “showing forth” consciousness attempts to create God in our own image instead of allowing ourselves to be fully surrendered and restored to our “Home Point” of the Christ Ideal.

Genesis Mind is always brought forth by pure Knowing, and Christ Jesus proved this power countless times during those events that we call miracles. Beyond belief, beyond ideas, beyond thought, and beyond every condition lies the foundational Knowing of Truth. It is in this state that the Christ lives, moves, and has Its Being. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the healing of a man “which had an infirmity thirty and eight years” (John 5:5) near the pool at Bethesda. This man, bound so completely by facts, conditions, and beliefs, lay among “a great multitude of impotent folk” (John 5:3) in hopes that some external, earthly influence might heal his own disease. His bed had become the symbol, one might even say the attachment, to that which had shown forth in his life for nearly 40 years.

Jesus the Christ never needed to hear the man’s story or how he had come to such a state. All that mattered was an overarching Knowledge of Truth and the genuine Passion to bring that Truth forth. This Knowing that Jesus had, as well as all of us by Divine Birthright, instantly dissolves everything that is unlike Itself; the essence of Perfection. “Wilt thou be made whole?” are the words of Jesus that open the receptivity in this man who had been using only his human vision for so very long. In an instant, all the shadow thoughts this man had claimed as real disappeared into the “noonday sun” of Christ Mind, restoring all his bodies, including the physical. “Immediately, the man was made whole.” (John 5:9) Where the world had told this man “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it,” the Knowing of Christ Jesus commands “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” (John 5:8)

Discarding, bit by bit, the burden of our human ego and personality is like a caterpillar surrendering a cocoon and revealing the true beauty of a butterfly, liberated and free. It is in this Freedom that Christ is not only realized, it is revealed. Truly, deeply, and confidently returning to and embracing the Ideal of “Your Father knows what things you have need of before you even ask” (Matt. 6:8) moves us into the consciousness of “bringing forth.” In this exalted state, power and humility become one, Jesus Christ is exposed as each of us.

In “bringing forth” there is no mixture of Heaven and earth in our expression, no “me and Thee.” It is here that the Prodigal Son in us returns home and feels the embrace of a loving Father which has more in store for us than we could have ever imagined for ourselves. It is here that Genesis is individualized as us in that our only agenda is that the highest expression of Immortal Mind Presence be done through whatever we say or do without condition, restriction, or attachment. This is Freedom, this is Love, this is Christ.

The table included in this essay is meant to be a comparison as to what “showing forth” and “bringing forth” might be like as road signs of experience.

Optional Exercise 

Consider the quote from the Bhagavad Gita referenced in this lesson: “Abandoning all acts, take sanctuary with Me. Alone. I shall liberate thee from all sins, do thou not grieve.” Find an equivalent Bible quote or quotes. After your research, turn to the next page for a list of possible answers and some discussion.

Answers to the Optional Exercise         

John 8:32: “And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.”

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor things present or things to come, nor powers nor height or depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Abandon: cease to support or look after. Our ‘acts’ are those things that we do or give attention to in the world and for the world (body, body of affairs, material attachments). Engaging in this abandonment allows us to “look Homeward” more fully, more steadfastly, toward First Cause, the Absolute, instead of the symbols, the relative.

We can “Take sanctuary with Me alone” as it is stated here. “I shall liberate thee from all sins” is our journey of Light that brings us to contact with the Source, which is Truth. Here, there is no idea of sin because there is no duality.

“Do thou not grieve.” To grieve is to experience sadness about something that is lost. Once reunited in Immortal Mind consciousness, anything that might appear to be lost is seen with crystal clarity to be the shadow that it always was. In Revelation 21:4, St. John says, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, the old order of things is passed away.”