My Present Experience is The Catalyst

Problems are generally defined as difficulties — puzzles to be solved, issues requiring a solution. The term “problem” paints a picture of something hard to deal with, something to be avoided.

A catalyst is something that increases action, brings about a change in appearance, or acts upon something to alter it.

These definitions may lead us to believe that all the negative “stuff” showing up in our world — war, ailing parents, a bad economy, lack, old age, oil spills, etc. — is bad and wrong, and “I” must do something about it. But no matter how I rush around changing this, doing that, judging this as good or that as bad, none of this human “doing” affects Reality: Mind/Principle in operation, which is, always has been, and always will be Perfect, Whole, Complete, exactly Right.

The sense picture is not the Truth or fact of Being. My teacher’s words come to mind: “Just drop it.”

Now how on earth can I drop all the “stuff” that seems to be my reality? I can’t, it seems, until I just start listing the “stuff” and the reasons why I cannot possibly drop my supposed responsibilities, and the question arises: Am I not giving power to the view?

The fact is: Everything is Mind Being. My only responsibility is to “stand at zero,” giving no power, for either good or bad, to the appearance, and hold to the fact there is one thing going on. (See Mind Is the Athlete by Betty Albee, p. 112.) The oneness of all Being is the only Reality there is. It is the All of All, governed by Principle. There is nothing outside All.

Does this mean I do nothing and hide my head in the sand? Certainly not! But with the internal dialogue quieted, the thoughts that come indicate exactly what is necessary. I do not generate these thoughts humanly. Mind does. And I have learned to listen and act accordingly. If the thought comes to do something, it has been my experience that this is what needs to be done. It may be as simple as taking something with me, or calling someone. Whatever it is, I recognize there is something I need to learn, and this is the only way. Any attempt to avoid “stuff” only accumulates issues. Like household items not picked up and put in their proper place, clutter can seem to become an even bigger “problem.”

I am reminded of the time my son, Jeff, then 5, was in pain. The doctor determined he had appendicitis and sent me immediately to a surgeon, who agreed that I needed to take Jeff straight to the hospital for surgery. I called a practitioner for metaphysical support and took the recommended human footsteps, but with the view that Jeff had never left the point of perfection.

We checked him in to the hospital, and after 24 hours of tests the doctor sat me down, reviewed all the “evidence,” and said the problem must have been the flu, as he could find nothing wrong with Jeff now.

Had anything changed? Only the “standing at zero” and the dropping of the view. As we walked through this experience, I did not judge it as good or bad but was willing to let it go, acknowledging that Mind/ Principle was all there is and allowing the view to look however it looked.

In any troubling situation, what’s needed is a shift from viewing the “problem” as a disruption in the flow of Life to seeing it as a helpful opportunity to put into practice, and fully experience, Truth in action, Mind functioning, Principle governing, and Love in operation. In Christian Science Re-Explored (see pp. 24-25), Margaret Laird advises us to “acknowledge Good in all ways” and discover that, with “no belief of good,” Good (with a capital G) “is in the bad as well as in the good.”

– Sandy Jackson