Christian Metaphysics- By William Samuel

The Child Within Quarterly Journal Notes

Fall 2007

Notes from Woodsong: Along the Way By William Samuel

MISCELLANY

This issue of the Notes From Woodsong comes to you just like a letter. This first effort is IT. No rewriting. No correcting the mistakes, strike-overs, poor grammar and spelling will just have to remain. I ordinarily spend weeks writing these paragraphs because it seems to me that words purporting to allude to the "Truth" be absolutely straight, honest and hopefully, simple. But this time I don't have weeks. I'd like to get this written before I leave Kailua-Kona to return to Alabama and spring.

Among my letters are some comments I'd like to answer here. "I am steadfastly refusing to go to the hospital or to see a doctor. I refuse to become entangled with medicine (materia medica)"

I do not believe that the early metaphysicians-Mrs. Eddy especially-intended that such a hard and fast prohibition against medicine and doctors become a part of the religious practices that grew out of their words. Over-reliance on people or things is prone to produce an under-reliance on God. Doctors were veritable gods in the eyes of society at the time "Christian metaphysics" broke on the scene and Mrs. Eddy worked hard to push the pendulum the other way. I do not think she was aware of the extremes to which her later followers would push that pendulum. There is a BALANCE twixt the two swings of every human activity. When one goes to a doctor for help, it doesn't mean he has ended his metaphysical efforts to perceive the Truth. He just may discover, as so many I know have, that the science of medicine is not excluded from Truth. Truth is not exclusive. God is ALL. Doctors are not fatherless bastards as so many the "absolutists" appear to believe-and the science of medicine has its place as certainly as the science of physics or astronomy.

Imagine driving our car down a portion of the interstate inadvertently strewn with nails by a construction truck ahead of us. Suddenly all four tires go flat. Who among us will just sit there, pinch our nose and attempt to "demonstrate" four tires full of air again? What do we do? While knowing that no matter how it seems only good is going on, we do what seems sensible to do-send for someone to repair or replace the tires. We put our automobile in the hands of someone whose job it is to take car of automobiles. And, because we refuse to waver from the knowledge that only GOOD is going on (because GOD is All that's "going on") darned if something WONDERFUL doesn't happen because of the four flat tires!

What is the difference between putting our automobile temporarily into the hands of an expert and putting our so-called body in the hands of an expert? We can certainly do this while knowing only Good is going on-and that the doctor is just as much a part of God's allness as anything else. (And everything else!)

What fearsome ogres some of us make of hospitals, doctors and medicine. All our "experts" exist because GOD, GOOD is their expertise. If it seems sensible to have a mechanic's opinion about the wobble in the front end of your car, for goodness sake get it. Isn't Life infinitely more than the body? Because the body spends a few days in a hospital doesn't mean Life has been confined there. Old bedrock Christian Scientists are needlessly fearful of their ogres. And how they suffer at the guilt of there own making.

It is that very guilt that binds one to the belief that well-being is determined by the condition of the body. It seems to me that my own sense of "all-rightness" is directly proportional to my outlook that only is GOOD is going on-despite any appearance to the contrary.

This doesn't mean I no longer have any consciousness of "the condition of the body" but it has certainly meant a growing sense of all-rightness-and fewer interruptions of it.

"Mr. Samuel, in all these years I have been unable to make my 'demonstration' of health and sufficiency."

Oh, what horrors have been heaped on humanity by the notion that one must make this or that demonstration in order to prove his knowledge of God. If God is all in all, who is this personal entity who must make a demonstration? Who is the one who has decided just what to demonstrate? Isn't it always the one who has determined that something is wrong, bad, incorrect, sinful or amiss? God has made no such decision about Himself.

The Light of Life is a constant Self-demonstration happening. All that is going on right before our eyes-all around us at every hand continually-is God's Self-demonstration happening.

So what do we do? We look for the real, the good and the true in all that appears to be happening right before our eyes. It is present. It is there to be seen and acknowledged-but it is difficult to do unless it is first admitted that only good is going on. How can one make such an admission? By acknowledging that GOD is indeed ALL.

God is all, so God is all that's going on. God is good, so only good is happening. How do we know this is so? "By looking and seeing that it is so." Just as the old sage said many moons ago. The "demonstrations" that have been most meaningful to me are those that have allowed me to see goodness and beauty where I thought I had seen darkness before.

Over the years I have had countless conversations with theologians, philosophers, scientists and religious leader of many stripes. I studied with some-and some stayed on to study with me. In light of retrospection, one quickly comes to see time and space for the timeless wisdom life (Awareness) already is. All those "people" were "myself" coming to myself to tell me of my uprightness and guiltlessness. In exactly the same way, all that is good and true within these simple words has come to you to tell you of your all-rightness.

The "real" of us is the Life of us-the Awareness that perceives these words. This awareness was never born. It doesn't wither and die. It isn't bound to a body nor contained within one. Rather, all bodies live and move and have their being within (and as) awareness.

How can I be certain of this? Why, the only thing in all existence I can be certain about is the fact of THIS awareness which presently perceives these words. It was THIS Awareness within which the philosophers and theologians appeared. It is this awareness within which all that has ever appeared has appeared. All that Identity is-its warp and woof-is awareness. I can be scientifically certain of nothing else except the fact that awareness IS.

The HEART of me can be aware of more, however. Scientific certainty is an intellectual process. The heart is an intuitive knowingness. The heart of us insists that "Something" is the source and substance of awareness. For want of a word capable of expressing it, I call that "Something" God, Isness, That which is. There are no words capable of describing God-yet, all words allude to God and God's Self-awareness. Who are you and I, dear friend? In the final analysis, we are the Self-awareness of God. This is the single point of agreement toward which theologian, philosopher and scientist are finally arriving.

As you may recall, Rachel and I have been looking for a place to put the finishing touches on a book. We thought a few moths "somewhere else" might be helpful. As it has turned out we have come all the way to Hawaii and lost touch with everyone. Here it is almost February and some of our December mail is just catching us. It was quite a different Christmas for us-high atop a California mountain-without word from family and friends. Please know that our tardiness in replying to your Holiday greetings is not as we planned it. I hope to answer every letter and card before heading back to greet the spring. I thank you kindly for being so patient with me.

As for the California mountain, it was the very place of the Michaelson-Morely experiments that determined the speed of light. Rachel and I only learned of this after heading there to look for a place to stay!

Yesterday, sitting on the lava rocks here beside our place-to-stay in Hawaii, we learned that this was a favorite place of our friend Joel Goldsmith. He came to this very spot to watch the great waves of the blue Pacific break against the rocky coast.

Such events seem to be accidental but they are not. The come to tell us that all our goals are very close at hand. For all of us, they come to confirm that ONLY GOOD IS GOING ON!

Isn't this so? I'm sure your heart says yes.

Honest love from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Bill

Return To Archive

William Samuel & Friends
Literary Executor Sandy Jones
email us at sandy@williamsamuel.com