Divine Science & Consciousness by Rev. Christine Emmerling 9/11/22 (text)
“Divine Science & Consciousness” by Rev. Dr. Christine 9/11/2022
Today’s talk is “Divine Science and consciousness.” What comes to mind is the Bible verse 1st Corinthians 13:11-13, in the Lamsa translation from the Aramaic, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now, we see through a mirror, darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
The dictionary defines consciousness as “The state of awareness. The thoughts and feelings, collectively of an individual. Full activity of the mind and senses. Awareness of something for what it is.”
Divine Science Its Principle and Practice defines consciousness as, “Applied to the Universal it means God’s awareness of itself, hence, of all there is. Applied to the individual it means the unfolding awareness of God. One’s present realization.”
Our premise starts from the basic principle that God is Omnipresent; meaning God is everywhere present. This Infinite Presence is expressing as our very being, as everyone, all life, everything everywhere visible and invisible. Even the air we breathe is the life of God.
What is this Divine everywhere consciousness? It is Omniscience; meaning Divine Intelligence - the one and only knowledge, wisdom and understanding. It is Omnipotence; meaning one and only power. And it is Omni-Action; meaning all action; all life and creation is of God.
God being consciousness then everything is consciousness expressing in different degrees of self-awareness. Even a newborn baby has consciousness. A plant, an animal, insect, individual cell and atom has consciousness. The entire planet and universe is the action of God consciousness.
In Divine Science we recognize our individualized consciousness as an ever-unfolding realization of the Divine Presence or God. And this results in our evolution to greater expression. We are an ever-expanding expression of Infinite Spirit. We evolve as spiritual beings through our beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, and creative expression.
Once upon a time we could have been the dinosaurs roaming the earth. At that time being the highest level of creative expression on this planet. Consciousness is always unfolding new avenues for greater creative expression.
The following is an excerpt from the book In the Light of Healing, a collection of talks by Nona Brooks.
“The natural scientists tell us that when the amoeba moves from the shadow into the sunlight it is because it craves the sunlight. First, the desire, then the endeavor, and then the accomplishment. And again, they say that the water creatures did not first acquire lungs and then live on the land, but they tried to live on land and after repeated trials, developed lungs and accomplished their great aspiration. But they were not satisfied even then; and so, living on land, the reptiles wanted something more and began to make repeated efforts to fly. They did not have wings and then try to fly, but they tried to fly many times and then developed the wings because of these repeated endeavors to do something that had never been done before.
First the aspiration, then the endeavor; and mind you, aspiration goes out toward something that most frequently has never before been done – certainly not by the one who is endeavoring. First the aspiration; then the repeated endeavor, and then the accomplishment.
From the beginning to the end of expression of life there is the one great longing and that is for something higher, something better, for knowledge; and knowledge is what I mean when I say light. “The spirit of a hopeful endeavor,” says Professor Malone, “possesses everything.” I do not know how it is with you, but I love to think that there is this great push, the push of life from the Universal One to express itself more and more fully, through every expression of life from the least to the greatest. And you know and I know how tremendous is that inner urge that pushes within us; that insists that we shall not stand still; that we, like the lower creatures, shall not be satisfied with any stage of development, but shall push onward and upward; that every attainment shall be not a stopping place, but perhaps a resting point for a moment, each resting place shall be merely a stage between the last step and the step that is to come...
Remember in our unfoldment (I am speaking from the process side) that all the time you and I are seeking, all the time we are aspiring and endeavoring, the light, the truth, the knowledge is perfect. You and I see the light partially. It is unfolded within us gradually and that unfoldment within us is the spiritual evolution of mankind.”
This inner knowing guides and directs its unfolding experience of life. Just as the Bible verse said, “when I was a child I thought as a child, and as an adult I am no longer doing childish things.” Meaning we no longer think or act as a child, but now as an adult we experience life through a greater awareness of life, of self, and of this Infinite Spirit we call God.
Moses upon the mountain top became aware in a greater degree of his Godhood, in his experience of the burning bush, and receiving a new awareness in consciousness “I Am that I Am.” No longer just Moses the man, but now Moses as a spiritual being having a direct connection and communication with God. Moses becomes a messenger, miracle worker, a liberator and spiritual leader.
Consciousness as in Divine Science is that part of us that is Divine Intelligence; all knowing, all powerful, whole and perfect, everywhere present, and love in action. Every person is on a path, a spiritual journey to knowing more of our God self. This is a process done in consciousness and then brought forth into our expression. First realization and then evolution. Our changes may appear invisible, for its not how we look on the outside, but how we think, feel and act. Although at some point there may be physical changes to accommodate the fuller expression.
Our individualized consciousness is a state of our being which includes our beliefs, thoughts, feelings and emotions. A change in consciousness is a change in perception, a paradigm shift in reality. All it takes is a small crack in our beliefs to let in the light. Much like when a baby chick that grows to a point that cracks their eggshell, and then the light comes in and now they fervently peck at the shell until it completely falls apart and sets them free. Free to what? A whole new reality of expression.
For us there are changes that can be recognized; on the path we have faith and hope, we see the world through a cup ½ full. We’re happier, healthier, more creative, compassionate, giving, loving, have an inner strength and are filled with light. This light emanates touching those in our energy field. Lifting the consciousness of those receptive which may result in a physical, emotional or spiritual healing. We may even consciously manifest, materialize and dematerialize at will as Jesus the Christ and other master teachers have demonstrated.
Divine Science sees the Bible as presenting the history of this gradual unfoldment of consciousness. Each person beginning as “Adam” in understanding; and each ending up as “Jesus” in full Christ consciousness. We are truly awakened to our Divine nature, and we call this being awake or enlightenment. We are told in Roman 12:2, “Do not imitate the way of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may discern what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
The Christ Consciousness or Christ Mind is already within us and is God’s pure love and light individualized through us, and is waiting our recognition and nurturing. Just like within the caterpillar is the potential to become a butterfly. This is the second coming, our coming out as the Christ. The attainment of Christ Consciousness is our goal. Christ Consciousness is spiritual perception in contrast to intellectual analysis; it is the awareness of the spiritual nature, function and Oneness of the universe based on the principle of Universal Love. Also known as Cosmic Consciousness.
The following is a poem written by James Dillet Freeman titled Through the Eyes of Love.
“Can you see the flowers when no flowers are there?
When the sky is empty and the fields are bare,
Can you see the beauty? Try, and you may feel
Through mind’s thin curtain to the eternal real
And shining glory, see the way things look
As they are painted in god’s picture book,
See that the stuff things have been fashioned of
Is not dull clay, but luminous with the love of God,
and everywhere around you lies heaven,
When you look at it with love’s eyes.
Not even all the flowers of May can match this wonderment.
Look, look, and you may catch glimpses of what was in God’s heart and mind when first
He made the world — oh; beautiful and kind!”
Next is a real-life extraordinary experience of Margaret Prescott Montague, as written in the Atlantic Monthly, November 1916; titled “Twenty Minutes of Reality.” Every time I read this it so touches my heart that I get god bumps.
I was lying on a cot on the porch of a hospital at the time, convalescing after a serious illness. It was an ordinary cloudy March Day. I am glad to think that it was. I am glad to remember that there was nothing extraordinary about the weather, nor any unusualness of setting to induce what I saw.
Yet here, in this everyday setting, and entirely unexpectedly, my eyes were opened, and for the first time in all my life I caught a glimpse of the ecstatic beauty of reality. I cannot now recall whether the revelation came suddenly or gradually; I only remember finding myself in the very midst of those wonderful moments, beholding life for the first time in all its young intoxication of loveliness, in its unspeakable joy, beauty, and importance.
I cannot say exactly what the mysterious change was. I saw no new thing, but I saw all the usual things in a miraculous new light – in what I believe is their true light. I saw for this first time how wildly beautiful and joyous, beyond any words of mine to describe, is the whole of life. Every human being moving across that porch, every sparrow that flew, every branch tossing in the wind, was caught in and was a part of the whole mad ecstasy of loveliness, of joy, of importance, of intoxication of life.
It was not that for a few keyed-up moments I imagined all existence so beautiful, but that my inner vision was cleared to the truth so that I saw the actual loveliness, which is always there, but which we so rarely perceive; and I knew that every man, woman, bird, and tree, every living thing before me, was extravagantly beautiful and extravagantly important. And as I beheld, my heart melted out of me in a rapture of love and delight.
For those glorified moments I was in love with every living thing before me – the trees in the wind, the little birds flying, the nurses, the interns, the people who came and went. There was nothing that was alive that was not a miracle. Just to be alive was a miracle in itself. My very soul flowed out of me in a great joy.
For those fleeting lovely moments, I did indeed and in truth love my neighbor as myself. Nay more: of myself I was hardly conscious, while with my neighbor in every form, from wind-tossed branches and little sparrows flying, up to human beings, I was madly in love.
This is how, for me, all fear of eternity has been wiped away. I have found a little taste of bliss, and if Heaven can offer this, no eternity will be too long to enjoy the miracle of existence. But that was not the greatest thing that those twenty minutes revealed, and that did most to end all fear of life everlasting.
The great thing was the realization that weariness, and boredom, and questions as to the use of it all, belong entirely to unreality. When once we wake to Reality – whether we do so here or have to wait for the next life for it – we shall never be bored, for in Reality there is no such thing.” The End!
In Divine Science God is Consciousness and is ever unfolding and evolving through its expression to greater expression. What a joyous vision to know that life only gets better, more adventurous, beautiful and joyous. And I am one with all that, I Am.
Let us affirm: “I acknowledge and praise the activity of God unfolding through me.”