On top of the Mount

I held my yearly Association meeting last Saturday. And what a glorious day it was.

For those unfamiliar, I am a Christian Science teacher, which means I hold a two week class once a year for students wanting to improve their practice of Christian Science and learn how to heal others spiritually. Each year I hold what is called an Association meeting, where all my students come together, and guests also, to keep their practice of spiritual healing abreast of the times and fresh with new inspiration.

This year, our theme for the day was “Standing on the Mount.” We dived into the Sermon on the Mount looking for truth that enables one to demonstrate in degrees the perfect man of God’s creating that Jesus Christ held out as the ideal man and is the ideal Christian Science constantly espouses.

One of the main points I covered was the benefits that come from syncing one’s thought with the letter and spirit of the Sermon. As we truly love unselfishly, eliminate all evil thinking, all resentment, complaint, ill-will, fear and other dis-eased attitudes of mortal mind, and love, love, love as Christ taught, we experience Kingdom living in the here and now of everyday experience.

Saturday evening, a couple of hours after the event had wound down and people had dispersed to their rooms and moved on to their next destinations, I played a bit of tennis with my son. While on court, the benefits of the day spent immersed in Sermon thinking was tangibly present with me. I felt so light, joyful, buoyant, free, and honestly--quite heavenly. There was not a bit of strain, stress, heaviness, darkness, burden or weight in my thought or body. And I thought, “This is the way one should always feel!”

The contrast I saw was in how I responded to my missed shots. I have much to learn in playing tennis! I do it strictly for fun, let me tell you… In the past, though, when I made a foolish mistake or miss-hit, I typically would make a mental note of it, get down a bit on myself, and move on. No big deal. But this night, I was not getting down about anything. If I missed a hit, I just prepared for the next ball coming my way. It didn’t matter that I had missed. I would concentrate on hitting the next one correctly. There was absolutely no sense of judgmentalism attached to my playing. I just played and kept working to do better. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.

I failed many times to hit the ball accurately, which is not unusual for me! But the failures didn’t matter. I was living in a moment of love where the attitude of love is what mattered, not whether I was hitting the ball perfectly every time.

After a while, I exclaimed, “I’m standing on the Mount!” And I was. The Mount is not a physical place but a high state of Mind. I was in a consciousness of Love that existed independent of material circumstance.

It’s a great place to be—on the Mount! Love is all that matters there, and all the worries, concerns and fears that come from pursuit of matter-based goals don’t exist. Pure bliss and peace are the outcome of Sermon thinking, and it's a very healthy happy place to be.

So, you can find your place on the Mount too. It's all in the book of Matthew, chapters 5 through 7.

I highly recommend the trip. It's worth the reward.