Our next assignment in Dr. Tom’s class is to discuss Myrtle
and her concept of salvation; specifically-salvation from what, for what, and by
what? I searched Healing Letters and How to let God Help You, and only found the term, salvation,
mentioned three times - one was a scripture quote.
In Healing Letters,
she writes, “God never sends a soul into the world without providing for its
needs. Until a person seeking to find his right work gets the light and feels
the urge to be up and doing, he is to be still and wait upon the Lord and see
His salvation.”
In How to Let God,
Myrtle says, “Our salvation is in our living by the Christ pattern— not
only by the teachings of the man Jesus Christ but by the Christ Mind within us.
Jesus Christ is merging His consciousness with the universal race consciousness,
that we may have His presence and the light, power, life, and love which are
expressing as our pattern and constant, quickening help. In the same book she
also quotes Psalms 50:23, “To him that ordereth his way aright will I show the salvation
of God.”
Salvation FROM WHAT? Myrtle says a person should be still
and wait to see the His salvation. Gleaned from her quotes above, she mentions
two consciousness: His consciousness, also called the Christ Mind, and the
universal race consciousness. In Healing letters she writes, “The Christ
Mind is the crystal-clear mind that is not blurred by the "becoming"
things of which the senses tell us, nor by the reports of the intellect which
are records of people's experiments day by day. Therefore, the Christ Mind is
crystal- clear, the race mind is blurred. Our salvation is from the blurriness
of the race mind. She goes on to say, “Our salvation happens when the Christ Mind
is merged with the race mind, and the clear light of understanding illuminates.
Often we experience this illumination as an “ah ha” moment, or a trong inner knowing.
FOR WHAT? For what reason are we given “salvation” or clear vision? We are saved so we can go about living the life we were truly meant to live. Myrtle writes, “We shall know the Presence of God, and see clearly just how we are to go about living the life that He is giving ...” For Myrtle, this means works, as indicated when she quotes John 15: 16, "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Also, referring back to the earlier quote where Myrtle emphasizes we are “saved” for works when she states, “We are to be still and wait upon the Lord and see his Salvation,” Myrtle is addressing a person who is seeking to find their right work.
FOR WHAT? For what reason are we given “salvation” or clear vision? We are saved so we can go about living the life we were truly meant to live. Myrtle writes, “We shall know the Presence of God, and see clearly just how we are to go about living the life that He is giving ...” For Myrtle, this means works, as indicated when she quotes John 15: 16, "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Also, referring back to the earlier quote where Myrtle emphasizes we are “saved” for works when she states, “We are to be still and wait upon the Lord and see his Salvation,” Myrtle is addressing a person who is seeking to find their right work.
BY WHAT? Salvation, for Myrtle, seems like a dual effort between
the Christ consciousness and the race consciousness. She writes, “We discipline the race consciousness,
so the Christ Consciousness can do it’s work. She also reveals that we have to
make the first effort, “We are finding out that we can discipline ourselves and
call upon the Spirit of God to act through us…” So we connect and the Christ
Consciousness does the work.
Myrtle says it is up to us to develop the Christ powers. She
also tells us we are to give up old race beliefs and human fears and personal
ambitions. To receive this salvation Myrtle
instructs, “Study and practice daily, keeping your mind and heart, your vision
and your emotions fixed on God— God in you. “Christ in you” is your “hope of
glory.”
All quotes taken from:
Fillmore, Myrtle (2013-06-04).
How to Let God Help You (Unity Classic Library Series). Unity Books. Kindle
Editio
Fillmore, Myrtle (2013-10-04). Myrtle Fillmore's Healing
Letters. Kindle Edition.
Thanks Beth. To play with Shakespeare's words, I believe "that salvation by any other name is still salvation."
ReplyDeleteYou are right that Myrtle does not often directly use the word 'salvation' in the Healing Letters. Nevertheless, I think the book is dealing with 'salvation' on almost every page.
As I read your blog my mind went back to something that happened to me way back in graduate school. Prof C. Y. Hsieh was one of my best teachers, and I had him for both history of economics and macroeconomics. I said something in his class, and he responded: "Mr Belous, when dealing with a model or concep of life, you need to deal with the unseen equations."
I said, "Dr Hsieh, I am having enough problems with the seen equations let alone the unseen equations."
But I think Dr Hsieh was right. The unseen equations get at the essence of a model or view of life. The unseen equations often deal with the three ton elephant in the room.
I liked how you pointed out that "Myrtle says it is up to us to develop our Christ powers."
Beth, I love your title to this week's post. Thank you for pointing out how infrequently Myrtle used the term, salvation. I am surprised, actually. I particularly liked what you said here: "Therefore, the Christ Mind is crystal-clear, the race mind is blurred. Our salvation is from the blurriness of the race mind. That is a great way to explain salvation.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the race mind? You never define it based on Myrtle's ideas. That's like tossing around assertions about being saved from evil without explaining what a Unity-compatible theology of "evil" looks like.
DeleteGreat, share, Beth! Super clear and organized with great textual support for your positions! Plus, how cool that you linked all our student blogs on your blog--great idea! Okay, so I have the same issue with your FROM WHAT conclusion that I had with others who, uh, heh, didn't agree with me that we're being saved from "suffering." Maybe it's semantics, but implied in the desire/need for salvation for me is that there is a problem (ie misery/hell consciousness/suffering) from which the knowing of our oneness indeed saves us. So while I agree it's framed as moving from ignorance to knowledge of Truth, I still think that the 'issue" with ignorance is not ignorance per se but that something within us is discontent with ignorance, struggles or suffers as a result of ignorance.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you framed the process of salvation as a dual effort between race consciousness and Christ consciousness. I kinda like that approach as it honors that we, as human beings, are still God expressing. it's not as simple as Christ consciousness VERSUS race consciousness. Perhaps it's an interplay of the two. just as we seek to remember we are God (or God is our essence), through us, God is seeking to simply express or experience itself as humankind...
Hey Beth,
ReplyDeleteI love that you searched Healing Letters for all of Myrtle's references to Salvation. I too must begin with some absolute truth before I'm ready to jump off the high dive into the deep end of the pool.
Great quote "Our salvation happens when the Christ Mind is merged with the race mind, and the clear light of understanding illuminates." I wonder if Myrtle ever had those ah ha moments where she was like... How did that get by me? I know I have those quite often and I can't be the only one, right?
Apparently my post never made it here... sigh
ReplyDeleteGreat post Beth. I like how you organized your thoughts. Seems as though we need concrete factual evidence before we go jumping off the high dive into the deep end of the pool. That's why I appreciated your doing research on Myrtle's use of the word salvation. Loved your ending summary. “Study and practice daily, keeping your mind and heart, your vision and your emotions fixed on God"
Wow. I didn't know what Nhien was talking about, but now I see the links to our blogs. Very clever, you are! It took me 3 tries just to post the initial blog...
ReplyDeleteIn reading Myrtle this week, it struck me how very radical her ideas must have seemed. Salvation is supposed to be through Jesus Christ. Period. And here she states, as you quoted , “Our salvation is in our living by the Christ pattern— not only by the teachings of the man Jesus Christ but by the Christ Mind within us." That HAD to have been a radical idea. NOT just by accepting the teachings of Jesus?
Thanks, Beth.
"Our salvation is in our living by the Christ pattern— not only by the teachings of the man Jesus Christ but by the Christ Mind within us."
DeleteThat's a helpful and somewhat controversial point which needs more expansion. How many Unity teachers today are emphasizing the teachings of Jesus rather than using him as an archetype for the development of the Christ Mind within?
Beth writes: "Our salvation is from the blurriness of the race mind." But I'm not convinced you have adequately explained what this "race mind" means in Myrtle's thought. Without knowing what we're saved from, the process becomes pointless, like escaping from the monster under the bed. The problems continue when you attempt to identify what we're saved for: "Myrtle is addressing a person who is seeking to find their right work." That's it? Jesus died so we can find the right job in life? Adding your view on Myrtle's method of salvation is also unsatisfying: "...we connect and the Christ Consciousness does the work." What does that even mean?
ReplyDeleteYour theology tingles with Unity cliche thinking. Attack all assumptions like a dolphin thumping a lazy shark. If you end up with reinforced cliches, so much the better.
Beth: Thanks for listing all the student blogs in one easily clickable location. Great link.
ReplyDeleteBeth. In your response to salvation for what you state "saved so we can go about living the life we were truly meant to live." That's really a good way of looking at salvation. When you think of it what is the point of being saved if not to live the life intended for us? Your quotations from Myrtle's writings are definitely in line with your statement.
ReplyDelete