21. We believe that Spirit, soul, and body are a unit, and that any
separation of these three is transgression of the divine law. We believe that the death
that came into the world through the Adamic man resulted in body dissolution, and that the
restoration of the lost Eden is already begun, in the demonstration over the death of the
body, as shown in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We are three-fold beings. We are Spirit
expressing through soul in a body. The Spirit phase of you is the image-likeness of God,
the divine pattern, spiritual man, the I AM or Christ, God individualized. God is the
source of all life, therefore, God’s presence within is the principle of life itself.
This first phase–also called the Superconsciousness–is eternal and unchanging,
our connection to all the wisdom, life and substance of God.
The second phase, or soul, is our
self-consciousness. It encompasses the thinking nature–the ability to think, reason,
choose, analyze, reject etc.–known as the conscious mind, as well as the feeling
nature which includes our ability to feel and the storehouse of memory. The soul is the
user of divine ideas and is often referred to as Consciousness.
Body is the third phase in our trinity
of mankind. As a God-idea, the body is eternal and perfect while the appearance it takes
on depends upon the use we make of divine ideas. When Mary Magdalene saw the man at
Jesus’ tomb, she did not recognize Jesus’ body in its resurrected form because
of the transformation which had taken place. I think the change she witnessed was no more
dramatic nor miraculous than the incredible change of appearance every caterpillar
experiences in its metamorphosis to a new state as a butterfly.
Each of our bodies is the meeting place
of the life and substance of God and so is important as a projection of the Spirit-soul
phases of our being–substance and life in expression. Charles Fillmore said,
"When man realizes that there is but one body-idea and that the conditions of his
body express the character of his thought, he has the key to bodily perfection and
immortality in the flesh." (Christian Healing, p.34) The key for us is the
realization that the body is plastic, it is formed or shaped by the matrix of the mind.
The lost Eden represents a state of
awareness in which we are so aware of our oneness with God that we are clear channels
through which life, love, wisdom and substance flow continually. We lose this state of
consciousness when we begin to believe in two powers, God and not-God, or good and evil.
As soon as we invest our faith in a sense of separation from God, we interfere with the
free flow of God-ness and we begin to experience entropy or things running down or running
out. This includes the energy that maintains the appearance or integrity of the projection
of the body. Jesus demonstrated by his resurrection from the appearance of death the power
we all have to transform the projection we call the physical body. By believing in this
power, others have lifted up their own crosses of limited concepts and begun the return to
a conscious state of union with the source of all life–God.
22. We believe that the dissolution of Spirit, soul, and body, caused
by death, is annulled by rebirth of the same Spirit and soul in another body here on
earth. We believe the repeated incarnations of man to be a merciful provision of our
loving Father to the end that all may have opportunity to attain immortality through
regeneration, as did Jesus. "This corruptible must put on incorruption."
We have finally gotten to the
"R" word. It has been so long since I have heard this discussed in Unity circles
that I wonder if I dare use it in public. Reincarnation. Now that I have said the word,
let’s discuss what it is not. I make a distinction between reincarnation and
transmigration which Webster’s dictionary does not. It defines transmigration
as "the passing of the soul at death into another body or successive bodily forms,
either human or animal." I reserve this word for the concept of a soul returning in
animal form instead of successive incarnations in a human body, which I prefer to call
reincarnation. Reincarnation is not transmigration.
The concept of reincarnation has been
around as long as mankind. There are as many in this world who accept the philosophy
(including many Christians of one type or another) as there are who do not. However, the
Liberal Catholic Church, which traces its roots to the Old Catholic Church of Holland and
came about as the result of a complete re-organization in 1915-16 of the Old Catholic
movement in England, states in its "Act of Faith" recited at mass: We believe
that God is Love, and Power, and Truth, and Light; that perfect justice rules the world;
that all His sons shall one day reach His feet, however far they stray. All the
children of God will reach the state of conscious oneness with God however long or number
of incarnations it takes them.
When I was a child I found it difficult
to accept the idea that we only had a few years of physical life here on earth and then,
at death, experienced eternal reward or punishment depending on whether we got it right or
not. The idea that life was a school with opportunities to learn how to live it and
provision for lessons to be re-learned appealed to me. The Unity Correspondence School
course material says: Reincarnation is the re-embodiment of man in a physical form; the
rebirth of an individual in a new human body. Reincarnation is the mercy of God, or the
love of God in action, as man fulfills his divine destiny of demonstrating perfection....
Reincarnation is essentially the formation and responsibility of the soul of man. It is a
merciful provision for man that gives him other opportunities to express life in the
physical body....The soul...must have the physical body...through which to prove its
freedom from limitation....The essence of wisdom, garnered through experience and
intuition, is carried forward to guard and guide the soul through further experiences.
(Series 1, Lesson 6, Annotation 12)
The Bible begins with the story of
Eden, the Tree of Life at its center and an angel with a sword guarding the way to the
tree, and the divine idea of humanity evolving into physicality, clothed with skins. The
Bible ends with a new Jerusalem, a new Eden with the Tree of Life in its midst bearing
twelve kinds of fruit available to all–mankind spiritually awakened so that between
God and human beings, there is no difference. The Bible is a record of the various states
of consciousness and physical expressions we experience during our soul’s journey to
spiritual enlightenment. I have said many times that on the pathway of life, the
destination is assured, how we get there and how long it takes is up to us. All His
sons shall one day reach His feet, however far they stray!
To Be Continued Next Month
Copyright © 2001 by Greg W. Neteler
Used with permission.
Messages from previous months