Yep, that’s right. You are never required to hate, resent, get angry, or be jealous or envious of your neighbor—ever! You can love them with ease. It’s the natural and normal thing to do as a child of God.
God created us to love, not hate.
Some people get so accustomed to thinking angry thoughts they think it’s normal. But it’s not. It’s not normal to hate. It’s evil, wrong, unspiritual, and very mortal to entertain spite and anger. It’s debilitating, demoralizing, and unhealthy. It leads to sickness, suffering, pain and a whole lot of unpleasantness. It’s no fun.
Life is so much better when fortressed and permeated by Love!
One practice I find helpful in defending myself from unwanted hate is to never internalize MAM.
MAM is an acronym for “malicious animal magnetism.” MAM is the evil of the carnal mind bent on killing the goodness and purity of God’s man. It wants to destroy, stop and prevent good from happening in our lives. It has no power, but seems to have power to the degree that we indulge it and allow it to use our thinking. So, it’s vitally important that we daily defend ourselves from its influence and not allow its evil thoughts to become our evil thoughts.
For instance, if a mental suggestion comes knocking, “I do not like that person,” and it continues to grow into anger and resentment toward that person, we’re internalizing MAM. We’re allowing the evil inclinations of the carnal mind to take over our mind and cause us to act contrary to our God-created inclination to love. Or if any hint of jealousy or envy start to germinate in thought and we do not check them immediately, MAM is at work pulling us down to a low place. We’re internalizing its evil selfishness rather than warding it off and keeping our thinking pure and enlightened.
It takes diligence, alertness and attentiveness to fend off the assaults of MAM. But it’s worth the effort. We are not helpless. Through understanding God’s omnipresent Love and our birthright to express it, we can say NO to any suggestion of MAM, refuse it mental entry and keep on loving, forgiving and leading a compassionate, kind, spiritually progressive life.
So, stay on guard today. Keep a high standard for your state of mind. Don’t internalize any evil suggestion from outside. Kill the unwanted intruder at the door and keep your mental home filled with truth and love. It’s a much happier way to live.
“Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.” Mary Baker Eddy
3 comments:
Thanks so much for reminding us how important it is to remain diligent where our thought is concerned. I would just add that it is equally important not to make MAM out to be some kind of Christian Science devil. We often speak of it as if it were a being in and of itself. It is not. It is a suppositional suggestion akin to the mistaken formula 2+2=5.
There is no malevolent principle called anti-math, yet we often struggle with the wrong concepts in math and arrive at the wrong answer. We must be alert to when we are basing our practice of math on a false basis. Just so, we must be alert to when we are basing our practice of Christian Science on material concepts. In any case, MAM is not a being and has no power. It is only a suggestion that we can alertly dismiss. Thanks for the reminder!
I appreciate your reminder today, Evan - some days I neglect to protect my thought.
Howard's "anti-math" comment puts a clear spin on mam. I love that analogy. Thanks to both of you.
Amen, Howard. We shouldn’t get too carried away with animal magnetism, and never, even in the act of its denial, assume that there is really anything to deny. Mrs. Eddy didn’t just give us another name for the devil: she taught that there was no devil, and therefore no animal magnetism. We should avoid anthropomorphizing it, wondering how long its horns are or the pointiness of its tail. We shouldn’t look to it as a cause, blame it recklessly, or in my opinion give it nicknames such as my favorite, “annie mag.” If you are looking for animal magnetism everywhere, then you are looking for God nowhere. There is no cause for nothingness, and animal magnetism is no thing.
I’m addressing the point where we anthropomorphize nothing: it may be convenient to say “AM is bent on x…, AM wants y…”, and I think many Christian Scientists speak in those terms. But of course, I think by assuming it is “bent on” we say it has goals, or we say it is “desperate” means it has feelings. Which is tantamount to wondering how long the devil’s horns are. It is a patently false construction of language, because the devil’s horns are irrelevant when there is no devil. 'Nothing' does not have goals nor feelings. So, I’m trying to learn to avoid those old CS jargon phrases myself. And still catching myself often :-)
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