What can you believe in the media?

I picked up this interesting observation from an Edward Jones newsletter.

Why Are the Media So Negative? The Story of the Bad News Bears

Two university professors, Robert Lichter and Ted Smith, once asked, “Does the media have a negative bias when reporting business news?”

To find the answer, Lichter and Smith analyzed more than 17,000 economic stories broadcast on the three major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC. Their conclusion: When reporting economic news, the three major networks convey a relentlessly negative view.

Lichter and Smith’s studies found that roughly 85% of economic news stories “had a negative tone.” Ironically, the highest periods of negative reporting came not during economic recession, but during times when the economy was expanding. Their findings were published in an article titled, “Bad News Bears” in 1993.

So the next time you visit a newsstand, take a step back and look at the headlines. If they’re negative in tone, things may actually be looking up.
(Forbes Media Critic, Nov 1993)

It’s common knowledge among investors that you find out about a recession near its end. There is such a delay between when it actually happens and when the statistic-gathers can assimilate the information and report it accurately that by the time the reporting is done the economic downturn is frequently about finished.

This type of effect often happens in the healing work. To the struggler working out the problem of Being, when the hour seems darkest, dawn is often nearest.

Mortal mind wants to evaluate the present moment by its experience in past moments, and if the past experience hasn’t been good, the present condition can appear very bleak. In actual fact, night may be about finished and day beginning to dawn.

Sooo, just as you can’t draw accurate conclusions from what you find in much of the News Media, you can’t draw accurate conclusions from what you perceive in the Sense Media either!

Go to Science. It’s the safest place to abide and gets you to where you want to be.

Remove the leading error

A friend shared a graphic analogy with me yesterday that has given me much to think about.

He had been feeling great frustration and grief over seeing many problems in his life that needed to be healed. The number of ills, complaints and evidence of lack appeared overwhelming, and he didn’t know where to start in his prayers.

While seeking comfort, a picture of a funnel filled with sand appeared in his mind, and the sand was trying to pour out the bottom of the funnel. But there was a little pebble stuck in the spout of the funnel preventing the grain above from flowing down through the opening.

He interpreted all the grains of sand to be the many different problems he faced. He realized that if he removed the one pebble blocking the way out, all the rest of the sand would flow effortlessly through the hole leaving a nice clean space behind.

The heaviness he’d been feeling about “healing all those problems,” lifted, and his prayers became filled with hope and promise once again.

His story reminded me of Mary Baker Eddy’s words

"Through different states of mind, the body becomes suddenly weak or abnormally strong, showing mortal mind to be the producer of strength or weakness….Remove the leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind, and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the morbid or excited action of any organ." Science and Health

Sometimes, problems and complaints we face are numerous, like many branches on a prolific tree. But rather than sometimes tediously loping off every branch, we get faster results by aiming the axe of Truth directly at the trunk, and toppling the whole beast at once.

What is the “trunk” of error? The belief that life, intelligence and substance reside in matter…

Matchmaking

I just read an intriguing article in the April 17, 2008, Christian Science Monitor, titled "She's got a date for you," about a professional matchmaker who puts men and women together, and for no modest fee--$4800, if you’re curious.

I prefer to trust the matchmaking skills of the one Mind, divine Love, to bring the right Joe together with the right Jane, but the views of the career matchmaker interviewed, Julie Ferman, from Brentwood, CA, where illuminating, none-the-less.

This quote by her especially caught my eye…

The toughest clients aren't fat or bald. They're the unhappy ones looking for a relationship to make them happy. "They think that's all that is lacking from their lives – the right person," says Ferman. They're impossible to please because they're looking for a panacea, not a person.

"You have to come to this party as a satisfied, loving person, able to see what's right in human beings instead of what's wrong. That's where success is," she says. "It's much more about being a loving, happy person than about finding a loving, happy person."

From what I’ve seen in people searching for love in the “right person,” these are profound words of wisdom, I would say.

Generosity

A thought for the day…

“If you are generous to others, life will be generous to you.”

Worth and value

"The real measure of your wealth is how much you would be worth if you lost all your money."

~ Anonymous

Eckhart Tolle and "A New Earth"

Have you heard about Oprah’s latest addition to her book club, Eckhart Tolle’s, “A New Earth?”

I had so many inquirers ask me what I thought about the metaphysical work, that I picked up a copy at an airport a couple of months ago and read it through to see what all the interest was about.

Oprah is sponsoring a series of ten seminars on the Web where she interviews Tolle about his ideas, and over 700,000 people signed up, I believe. So interest in his perspective is high at the moment. Millions of copies of his book have sold in a short period of time.

I read the book through looking for ideas that might help in my own pursuit of Truth, and also with an open mind to understand why people were attracted to its teachings. “A New Earth,” has deep roots in Buddhism, with a few references to Christianity, and under Hindu influence as well.

Many of Tolle’s comments easily resonated with me. There were many ideas shared that a student of Christian Science would agree with and say, “I’ve always believed that.” For example,

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge.”

“Whatever the ego seeks and gets attached to are substitutes for the Being that it cannot feel.”

“…you don’t live your life, but life lives you. Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.”

As much as many of Tolle's ideas jumped off the page and turned on mental lights for me, as I read through the book I got more and more troubled about where Tolle was trying to take me. The basic premise of his thinking felt out of kilter with what I had learned about Truth in my study of the Bible and Christian Science.

Stop thinking
For instance, his method of finding Being includes ridding your consciousness of thought. You must literally quit thinking, and this is because all thinking is what he calls “ego,” and ego must be annihilated and dissolved so that the one Consciousness can take over. He explains how to do this by concentrating on breathing, for example, until your thinking is empty of ideas. This is the route to Enlightenment and Awareness, he asserts.

I could readily see how emptying the human mind of anger, resentment, worry and fear leads to much greater peace and even to what he calls Enlightenment. After all, it’s all these negative emotions that cause so much human suffering in the first place. I could even see myself doing that. In fact, many times in my life, I have felt so mentally free of human mind turmoil that I felt very close to God, at-one with Love. And it is a blissful state that is indescribable in words. But the route to that peace was one of avid spiritual growth and obedience to the demands of Love that required thinking and reasoning to get there, at least, for me.

To focus first in one’s metaphysical journey on “not thinking,” and letting the absolute take over reminds me of a statement Mary Baker Eddy made to a student who kept declaring absolute truths in her prayers but did not obtain earthly results. Eddy rebuked her student's absolutism by saying something to the effect of, “Your head is in the clouds while your body is on earth being filled with bullets.”

I remembered Eddy’s proclamation, “The time for thinkers has come,” on the first page of Science and Health. And it seems to me that Jesus Christ taught his students and disciples to think—to think more spiritual and less material. So, voiding consciousness of thought was a difficult place for me to go.

Tolle would say my concern is ego getting in the way. And I understand what he means in terms of mortal ego refusing to submit to the divine Ego. But the extension of his logic to a total annihilation of our individuality as children of God is what I had a hard time accepting. I’ll go more into that later.

I believe in one Ego, God, the divine Mind, but I also believe man expresses that Ego. Each of us expresses the divine Ego, the divine Mind, which means we manifest thinking, intelligent consciousness. I don't believe we are absorbed into a vast ether of Consciousness where our identity ceases to exist.

Nonresistance
Tolle also preaches nonresistance. In my study of history, I’ve seen many virtues to nonresistance and how the world has been blessed by leaders who advocated this approach over violence. But these leaders are often victims of assassination, which is very unfortunate. It seems to me, that a higher path is required for long term success.

Nonresistance has some major limitations when warring against evil, especially when evil is malicious and aggressive. As James preached, “Resist the devil and he shall flee from you.” Resistance is required, but it’s a spiritual resistance, a Truth-resistance that brings desirable results.

I learn from Jesus Christ’s example.

Jesus’ form of resistance was more than nonresistance. He resisted evil to the hilt, with words of wisdom and understanding, and with prayers that neutralized evil intent. The crucifixion is not an example of nonresistance, but of spiritual demonstration. He purposely turned himself over, in that case, to his enemies to prove they could not kill him. And he proved his point for humanity’s all-time benefit.

Because of his example, we do not have to do the same. We can apply his lesson of how divine Love triumphs over evil, and protect ourselves from the assassin’s bullet in the first place.

Mary Baker Eddy discovered how to do this scientifically. Assassins attempted to take her life through physical and mental means, but she knew how to neutralize their evil thoughts and prevent them from killing her. This is the ultimate form of defense against evil. And it requires thinking, praying and spiritual reasoning to accomplish. It’s a method that transcends nonresistance. It’s the ultimate in spiritual resistance.

Acceptance
Another topic of Tolle’s that gave me trouble was his concept of “Acceptance.”

Tolle’s answer to “What about evil?” is to accept it for what it is. In the end, it is illusion, he states, but in the human experience, you often have to simply accept it. He tells his reader to not argue with it or let it preoccupy thought. Just accept it, void consciousness of emotion about it, and be at-one with Consciousness.

He wrote, “Accepting means you allow yourself to feel whatever it is you are feeling at that moment. It is part of the is-ness of the Now. You can’t argue with what is.”

If an event adverse to your well being happens, he wrote, “You would immediately accept the situation and thus become one with it rather than separate yourself from it.”

I asked myself, though, what about times of severe pain or incurable disease, lack, poverty, oppression, and their kin? Am I supposed to accept these?

I thought about a time when I flew back home from Africa and fell deathly ill. I had been taught by the Bible and Christian Science to not accept illness, but to resist the temptation to give into it, to rise up in the strength of Christ and heal it spiritually, which is what I did. If I were to “accept” the illness, it would have taken me over, rather than be defeated. I wouldn’t have been able to heal it.

Form and identity
I loved Tolle’s discussions on how we should not identify with form. By “form” he meant material things, objects of sense, as well as mental forms such as emotions and internal feelings. I have spent hundreds of hours in prayer disassociating myself from “form” over the decades, from money, position, status, prestige, and their relatives and with grand success. It is very freeing to become unattached to material things. So I could readily see the benefit of his counsel. But as I continued with his logic of deserting form I became greatly troubled again by where he was taking me. In his final analysis, man has no form. Man has no identity. There is only Consciousness, Presence, Being.

I believe there is one God, one Being, one Presence, but I also believe man (as a generic term) has identity in this Presence. The book of Genesis states that God made man in His image. Man has an identity. It is not apart from God. Man is not a god unto himself. But man does have form and shape—spiritual form and shape—in divine Being.

I think of God as being one infinite Individual, and man as expressing God’s infinite individuality.

For instance, like there is one Europe, but millions of people living in Europe who are called Europeans, there is one God, one Universe, but inhabited by countless divine offspring who are God’s children. We each have distinct identity within the One Grand Whole of God. Collectively, all of man reflects the wholeness and completeness of God.

And this point of Tolle’s was the most difficult for me to accept—the total dissolution of individual identity.

Jesus Christ taught, “You shall be as angels in heaven.” Eddy wrote, “All is Mind and Mind’s idea.” The “idea” Eddy described, is the “angel” Jesus saw. We each are God’s idea, God’s angel, with eternal individuality in heaven, in Mind, I believe.

Consciousness
Tolle states, “And who are you? Consciousness. And what is consciousness? This question cannot be answered. The moment you answer it, you have falsified it, made it unto another object. Consciousness, the traditional word for which is spirit, cannot be known in the normal sense of the word, and seeking it is futile. All knowing is within the realm of duality—subject and object—the knower and the known. The subject, the I, the knower without which nothing could be known, perceived, thought, or felt, must remain forever unknowable. This is because the I has no form.” (p. 242) After reading this, I thought of the Apostle Paul’s experience on Mars Hill when he came across the altar marked, “To the Unknown God.” He further declared, “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”

My understanding of Deity is that God is knowable. God is Love, tangible, concrete, meaningful powerful Love right here in the human experience, to be felt, expressed and blessed by. The Christ comes to us where we are and helps us, restores us and heals us. There is nothing unknowable about divine Love. It’s real, and it’s here and it’s ours to experience to the fullest.

Summary
There are many other points I could discuss, like his explanation of how the divine descends into matter, for example into the brain, and exits it if the brain becomes defective and can no longer “be used.” Or how to deal effectively with what he calls a “pain-body,” but this is enough. I feel I have accomplished my original purpose of getting my mental arms sufficiently around his text to gain insights into his philosophy.

I found his book very thought-provoking and very helpful in forcing me to understand my own beliefs better. Tolle is a good writer. His explanations are clear. I’m grateful to have read his book because it has given me a much clearer understanding of Eastern philosophy and what the Eastern thinkers mean by the concepts of Presence, Being and Consciousness. I do not know the degree to which Tolle’s thought is aligned with Buddhism, but I feel his explanations have given me a much better understanding of what Eastern philosophers teach. And that is a good thing. Understanding and respect for neighbors is important to promoting world peace and brotherly love.

I can see now, though, that what millions call Presence, Being and Consciousness, is not the same thing I mean when I say God, or divine Love. There are many similarities, but also some major distinctions and differences. The role and place for individuality is a major distinction.

Tolle uses John’s vision in the book of Revelation of “the new heaven and new earth,” as the inspiration for the title of his book, “A New Earth.” His “New Earth,” is the effect of people putting his teachings into practice, and successfully reaching Consciousness, where form is no longer worshipped and the human mind is void of thought. It’s a state of existence where Consciousness is in control, not ego.

He wrote, “The new earth arises as more and more people discover that their purpose in life is to bring the light of consciousness into this world and so use whatever they do as a vehicle for consciousness. Awakened consciousness then takes over from ego and begins to run your life.”(p. 300) As with many of Tolle’s statement, I can easily agree with what seems to be the obvious outline of this vision. I too, believe, in one God, in one Deity, and that our role is to be “taken over” by the divine power to fulfill the purposes of good. But I also believe we each have individuality as children of God, and that our individuality is to be cherished, honored, respected, understood and loved.

On the final page of his book, Tolle quoted Jesus Christ who taught, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." "The meek are the egoless." Tolle wrote.

Yes, I agree, that the meek are those void of mortal ego, but also reflecting the divine Ego which manifests itself in the form of tangible spiritual individuality.

You and I are children of God, blessed with precious individuality that is forever ours. United in the one individuality, God! Yes! But still in possession of individuality.

For those of you following the Tolle discourse, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you've been discovering.

The Daffodil principle

A inspirational story forwarded by a reader...

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over."

I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive. I promised a little reluctantly on her third call that I’d come over next Tuesday.

When I arrived, we went out for a drive.

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, "Daffodil Garden."

We got out of the car, and I followed Carolyn, my daughter, down a path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

"Who did this?" I asked Carolyn.

"Just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking," was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman, two hands, two feet, and one mind." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived.

One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.

That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time--often just one baby-step at time--and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years? Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.

She was right. It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?"

Use the Daffodil Principle. Stop waiting.....

Until your car or home is paid off

Until you get a new car or home

Until your kids leave the house

Until you go back to school

Until you finish school

Until you clean the house

Until you organize the garage

Until you clean off your desk

Until you lose 10 lbs.

Until you gain 10 lbs.

Until you get married

Until you get a divorce

Until you have kids

Until the kids go to school

Until you retire

Until summer

Until spring

Until winter

Until fall

Until you die...

There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

So work like you don't need money. Love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one's watching.

Wishing you a beautiful, daffodil day!

I like this story! It's a parable for success in life. Even in spiritual study, the great Aha! moment of seeing complete spiritual perfection doesn't come in a moment. It's the working of moments, faithful moments, of steadfast commitment to understanding God better.

As the woman planted one bulb at a time and we gain one new spiritual insight at a time, our mental garden grows and blooms and expands and prospers until the entire mountainside of thought is covered with divine glory and we gasp with eternal joy at the scene of heaven laid out before us.

Val Kilmer: Mary Baker Eddy and Mark Twain

For any of you Christian Science history buffs, here’s a short film (11 minutes) Val Kilmer produced on some of Mark Twain’s opinion of Mary Baker Eddy.

It’s a new slant that hasn’t received much attention in the past.

Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy

"Thinking about women" series

The final parts in the podcast series, “Thinking about women,” on tmcyouth.com that I participated in have been posted.


Part 5
Almost everyone knows what it’s like to want to shake a bad habit, unsuccessfully. If you’re honestly trying to live a better life, how can you move forward without being dragged down by outgrown behavior? The fifth installment of “Thinking about women—the series” covers just that—”How to shed behavior that drags you down.” This was a topic brought up right on the discussion forums of tmcyouth.com. In this podcast, Christian Science practitioner Russel Fogg and video producer Matt Lawrence join TMC Youth’s David Bates to look into it.


Part 6
Whether you’re married, hoping to marry some day, or happily single, “What about women, sex, and marriage?” has some spiritual insights for you. In the sixth and final episode of “Thinking about women—the series,” Christian Science lecturer Evan Mehlenbacher, Christian Science practitioner Russel Fogg, and video producer Matt Lawrence join TMC Youth’s David Bates honestly take on the topic of marriage, from a man’s perspective.

Adjusting to the light

Last week, the children and I went on a 40 mile snowmobile ride that took us up to the Bone Springs warming hut in the Blue Mountains. There’s around 10 feet of snow in the Blues right now, which is phenomenal for this time of year.

It was a beautiful sunny day with the sun glistening brightly off the snow as we zipped up the hills, over the snowdrifts, through the fluff and along steep canyon walls.




When we got to the top and took off our helmets, we were amazed to see the Bone Springs hut buried in snow. The “hut” is a small building with a wood stove inside for people in the wilderness to find warmth or protection if in trouble. The white stuff was so deep, that your feet on the ground where above the top of the door. We descended through a narrow tunnel down to the entry that had been carved out by shovels, only to find ourselves blinded when we stepped inside the structure. We could see almost nothing even though light was pouring in behind us.

I stopped and sought out a spiritual lesson from the pitch darkness I saw before me.

I knew the room had light in it, for the door was open behind me. But I could not see. My eyes were accustomed to the bright light outside reflecting off the white snow. They were not accustomed to the dark and were not taking in enough light to see. I knew that if I waited long enough, my eyes would adjust, and forms would start to appear. And sure enough, in a few minutes I could see everything in the room with ease.

I thought about different mindsets people entertain that have similar effects.

For example, take someone who is naturally a grateful and joyous person, who sees good in everyone. Suggest to them that nothing good is going on, life is miserable, and they should feel miserable, and your comments are likely to have as much effect on them as a passing shadow has on the ground it temporarily darkens. They will not be convinced because they know better. And they will not “see” the miserable soul’s point of view.

Or conversely, take a small spirit who is all caught up into self, living in their own self-centered world, and put them it with people of a generous out-going spirit, and they likely will still feel isolated and lonely. They do not “see” the love that is all around.

Mary Baker Eddy said it well when she wrote,

Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes accustomed to darkness are pained by the light.

Interestingly, when we walked out of the hut into the bright sunshine, the light was so piercingly bright we had to close our eyes for it was too much to take in until our eyes adjusted again.

The lesson I took back down the mountain was to have patience when standing in apparent darkness. Just as I knew there was light in that room, even though I couldn’t see, with patience, my eyes adjusted appropriately and objects became discernible. There was light where there seemed to be no light.

In life we may find ourselves in situations that appear very dark. But there is light present to brighten the view. We may need to be patient while our mental eyes adjust to the light and let it in, but as the light dawns on thought and illuminates the view, what we thought was absent becomes discernible.

God is all. God is Light. The Light is everywhere. We live in the Light! And this truth, accepted and understood, can dispel a whole lot of darkness.

Changing opinions on exercise

I laughed out loud over a week ago when I read an article in my local newspaper reporting a survey that stated exercise is not necessarily helpful in losing weight. Unfortunately, I can’t find a link on the Internet to the article, but it was a substantial study done by reputable researchers.

They were not discrediting benefits from exercise, but wanted people to know that exercise is not a cure all for losing extra pounds.

Why?

Because too many people after a heavy workout at the gym go home and reward themselves with food—eating more than they would have eaten if they had skipped the gym and just come home. The net effect of eating more as a personal reward negated any caloric benefit from exercising.

Oh, the changing winds of mortal opinion and belief…and they will continue to change and revise until thought settles on a spiritual solution for extra weight gain.

I thought the report was healthy for public consumption because it declared that there is no single material remedy for conquering obesity. To make flat statements of “exercise more,” may not be helpful for many people.

The Bible teaching, “Exercise thyself to godliness,” is perhaps the healthiest program to follow. A godly thought will manifest itself as godly action, and godly action will in turn protect the body from mental influence that throws it out of balance.

With recessionary pressures felt in many places, a spiritual exercise program such as this is budget friendly too!