"I consciously am; then what I am conscious of must be the content or constitution of my own consciousness or Mind. Nothing exists for an individual unless he is aware of it and since his awareness is his own Soul or Mind in manifestation (himself), there is nothing to be aware of outside of himself??the conscious infinitude of existence." [WATW p.xxxvi]
Identity is that which designates existence. I recall the story of a child's answer to the question, "If you were all alone in the middle of the desert, how would you know God was there?" The child answered, "Because I would be there!" Exactly! The only confirming evidence of existence I have is my own existence. I know that I exist. It appears that other "stuff" exists, but that's controversial. I know that I consciously am.
Our world of experience is direct self?awareness. As awareness expands, so does our world, and not the other way around. The infinite potential for self?awareness is realized in the language called the world. The human capacity to be divine is Spirit evident humanly. And Spirit/Truth stating itself shows up as everyday people, places and things. What's present when Being occurs identifies Being. The language is a transient view which constantly changes (i.e. appears, disappears and re?appears in fairer form) as awareness expands. Living myself divinely, I will not cling to the appearance language or to various labels as I walk on. But rather, Being expands into newness of Life, including newness of language, with every step. Omnipresence is the identity showing up successively as the horse and buggy, automobiles, superjet airplanes and space shuttles. What next? Out of "not knowing" the infinite unknown gives identity to the means and methods whereby the individual experiences his unlimited capacity to be all. Appearances are labels for the identity present. Computers, fax machines, video cameras etc. are all labels further identifying omnipresence and omnipotence. My enjoyment of those labels (or lack of enjoyment) is feedback showing me how stuck or unstuck in the "status quo" I'm willing to be.
Science is the discovery that individual Mind, the only Mind there is ? my mind, your mind, all Mind ? is it's own great cause and effect. In this discovery, the God concept of creator and effect disappears. In its place the God idea, all presence is one, appears in greater clarity.
Consciousness constitutes. Consciousness constructs. The self? conscious being that I AM is Spirit/Mind. Spirit is always incarnating itself, i.e. continuously giving rise to humanity. Creation (evidence or manifestation) is ever appearing and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. (S&H 507) Conscious awareness on?goingly expands one's perceptual world of daily experience into possibilities not yet identified. It would be impossible for expanding awareness to diminish one's living in any dimension.
In her seminar in 1965 Mrs. Laird said, "I am. Margaret Laird is my name, but the name is not "I." The name and all that is mistaken for the "I" that I am has no voice whereby it can say I am, nor has it any capacity for self action or free will. Consciousness or awareness, Being, is! The conscious identity of Being says I AM with every breath it draws. The vision or self- conscious "I" that I am, makes all I my "I." All I growing out of this "I" that I am, makes the private sensing of each individual visible and tangible in forms seen, heard and felt."
All is subjective, never objective. The tangibility and visibility of Spirit always manifests in forms understandable at my present level of discernment. I am the world I walk through because the "I" being me is the only existing world. The "I" makes its entire world out of its own mental materials??my own Mindedness. However, the form existing as Mind evidence does not conform to any personal view of form. All form is the evidence of what is, i.e. one functioning Principle, and is never found in the concept of what is. The concept doesn't exist.
Science provides the vision that is the discernment of the spiritual facts of whatever is observed. But, if the human condition is the lens for observation, nothing seen, heard and felt will be reliable, responsible or true. The picture presented is a look, a view; it is never the way it is. The image projected is the look suggested by an "already listening" (the past) in which we swim most of the time. This view is reinforced by parents, by training and education, by authorities and experts in every walk of life. It is labeled as sensible and reasonable. However, Truth simply is. It does not claim to be sensible and reasonable by any standards imposed by the human condition. To one thirsty in the desert, it is unreasonable to reject the lake in the mirage. But understanding has us do this. It is unreasonable to live and act contrary to the human condition of life unless understanding gives us a view sustained by Truth which removes us from the paradox level of belief and demonstrates the supremacy of the one eternal presence. An acknowledgement of the Truth provides the present possibility of living the facts of Science right in the midst of the appearance of the paradox world. Reality is present. The discernment of spiritual facts consciously lived is the power and presence which constitutes and constructs a satisfying human experience out of my own conscious divinity. In such living my whole world is full of light and there is no victim.
No verbalization, no profession, no belief or theory can make the "I" humanly what the "I" is divinely as conscious identity. What good is profession? "I don't have to declare or "know" the Truth to have the Truth. Truth is operating as my thinking right this identical minute," says Mrs. Laird. Nothing else is real or has substance. All appearances are successive views of Reality, my identity. The paradox or human condition is a view, a transient moment by moment view. Living Reality scientifically with no personal sense or attachment to obscure what's present, allows a successively more accurate vision to emerge as a freer, healthier, wealthier and wiser individual experience. However, all views are finite, so don't fool yourself into resting in any view, belief or concept be they good, bad or indifferent. Every view is simply perfection the way it is seen it right now.
Standing on the edge of what's possible, I will find myself enjoying an ever evolving freedom that changes faster than I can acknowledge it's presence, always more nearly approximating the perfection or reality that is. "Standing on the edge" can only occur when there is no "already listening" present (no reference to the world of agreement or the past). At such a moment the experience felt is "I don't know!" Only then am I truly on the edge where self discovering breaks through.
Again, quoting Mrs. Laird, "If the conscious infinitude that you are is not to become unglued, dehumanized, lose identity, you must live your others, be they friend or foe, as essential to your wholeness. Every one of them! My others are identity for my wholeness and therefore essential to me." My own existing presence tells me that reality is present. Freedom from conditioned thinking allows the perception that what's possible is way beyond what conditioned thinking can conceive or project, which encourages me on?goingly to let go of the old and embrace the new.
When the "I" is informed only by Science/Truth, in place of the human condition, that information eclipses whatever has been limiting my experience of living, expands my appreciation of what it is to be alive, and enhances the very circumstance that might have appeared as formidable. In the words of Mrs. Eddy, this is gathering the facts of Science from the divine Mind, which makes circumstances into "angels entertained unawares!" What and how perfection or Reality looks is not known. The infinite unknown, when approached from "not knowing," gives access to joy, freedom and power unimaginable within the context of paradox living. Being on the cutting edge of self discovering languages itself on every belief level identifying individual and universal wholeness and satisfaction in discernible form.
According to Science, what's present when a sense of "I" shows up is Mind consciously self-aware. What's acting when action appears is the all-acting, all-wise life force Mrs. Eddy defined as "The great I AM."
The reason the seen, heard and felt on my human belief level do not fit my sense of infinite perfection, or the God-idea, is that the educated filter called Betty has been carefully trained to view the seen, heard and felt according to the beliefs and customs endemic to personal or paradox living. But when we see, hear and feel only in terms of the eternal or God's eye view (be informed by Reality), we shall experience perfection reciprocally being us as our current language of self-recognition. The fact "All is infinite Mind" will forever assume forms not yet dreamed by humanity.
