Conscious Immortality, James E Dodds ( Audio Book )

Conscious Immortality

Complete Audio Book Available in Members Area

This book has been pronounced a new step in philosophic and religious thought, giving the true breadth of the ethical and spiritual message of the Master, which is satisfying alike to scientist, religionist, or even the ma­terialist. It explains why all our mod­ern notions of Time, Space, Substance, and Spirit were anticipated in the True Ideas of Great Beings. It explains Who you are, and what you can hope to know and he. Any human being who will take the time properly to under­stand this cosmology need never feel alone or helpless again. For the first time, there is given an analysis of prayer which will satisfy both mystic and materialist. With these techniques and this philosophy, Doctor Dodds has been able to mend hundreds of broken lives and bodies. Even for the strongest and most self-sufficient, this book will be an education in the meanings of Life and Intelligence, why they appear, and from whence have they come.

Contents:

Introduction to Thinking; Concepts of Man About Himself and God; The Nature of Man’s Becoming; The Ego, the Real Thinker; Consciousness; The Thinker Changes Things; How Man May Know the Love of God; A New Approach to Prayer.

FOREWORD

THE REAL LIGHT which guides man is not dependent upon the light which preceded it. Mental illumina­tion is not dependent upon the concepts held at any one time or place. It is, therefore, not the purpose of this work to adjust itself to, or harmonize with, anything else in philosophy or spiritual science. This is a philosophy of intuition. The light herein contained was secured intui­tively and is, for the most part, pure and original. It must carry within itself the power and the conviction of its worth.

Those who have a bent for comparisons may make them, but it is suggested that he who reads shall place himself in the position of one asking questions and then listening attentively for the answer, rather than comparing the ideas expressed here with others he may have entertained. The mere fact that one is interested in such subjects shows a mind which is questioning and thirsty for those hints, ideas, or concepts that are useful in making possible a step forward. No honest seeker expects to find at once the ultimate truth, but rather so much of it as provides a more positive approach to the ultimate. Progression is infinite.

This work represents an intuitive release of a group of ideas which deal with man and his possibilities as a spirit­ual being. I have elaborated on some relative concepts in order to clarify the aims of our search. The reader is asked to examine each chapter carefully. By doing so, he will find that the ideas will come into harmonious pattern. Later, he is asked to read the chapter again from the stand­point of how it “feels” to him. A sympathetic reaction indicates capacity or readiness to accept and appropriate new light. Ideas which are presented to us are but a spur to personal effort. The truth needed by each individual must come as a pure certainty from the depths of self, and not just as something which denies or affirms what has gone before. Only what is really needed by the individual, at the level of his understanding, can be recognized and properly valued. To this extent truth is self-evident.

Those who have come to respect intuition will find happy response to much that is presented here. Those to whom intuition is a stranger will profit by the ideas, for among them may be found the light so essential to a quick­ening within of the spiritual forces. If we read with interest and expectation we shall always be rewarded. From within the soul will come the approval.

New ideas are frequently shocking. The degree of “shock” is the measure of crystallization of attitude. It is a sign of the need for more light. The search for truth necessarily leads to new paths of understanding and neces­sitates an integrity of determination; for only the inde­pendent and fearless are privileged to break new ground. These enter into union with treasures of Reality which alone quench the deep thirst of the soul and reveal new vistas of possible growth.

The satisfaction gained through attainment gives one new strength to proceed. The student who remains young in attitude will remain more youthful in mind and body. In reality, the Universe permits no tarrying. The question is one of choice in growth, whether or not we are to press on to greater heights, gaining new strength with each new accomplishment.

Only he wearies who has lost the way, never he who has the goal clearly in sight and feels the urge for new progress. The process is one of natural sequence and order. There is neither hurry nor lag, for the seeker in conscious­ness must not leave the state of poise and control. He is ever about the business of living harmoniously with new measures of eternal values, thus enhancing that portion of the endless days of spiritual light which are spent on earth.

The reader is invited to enjoy with the author these aspects of truth given him, and to enter into that larger life of intelligent responsibility which belongs to those who know the “way” and who have gained the strength to walk therein.

 
Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION TO THINKING

REAL THINKING is a creative function. Many have stri-ven to untangle the ideas of man in order to ascertain which of these ideas arise from intuition, which from reaction to earth-experience, and which from tradition and hearsay. But whatever we may think of the thought processes of the human brain, we shall all agree that its uses and possibil-ities are as yet quite unfathomed. Also, we must recognize that somewhere, between the Universal which is innate, and the explicitly-expressed, lies a mental realm which is creative. Unconcerned with what always has been, the thinker seeks to express a new aspect of truth, infinitely valuable offspring of intuition and reason, a little above the temporary “wheel of things.” This, I am pleased to call real thinking.

Creative thought is something we have always accorded to genius though we deny it to ordinary men. It should not be difficult to prove that moments of illumination be­long to all; though with most of us, at our present stage of development, they are a seeming accident, a momentary equilibrium, when the mists and fogs of earthly uncer­tainty drift apart and there is experienced a moment of joy and divine certainty akin to ecstasy. Reason alone is but the servant of such an experience.

I once had a student who described to me such a mo­ment of her childhood. She told of walking through her father’s orchard one spring morning. The trees were in blossom and the birds were singing. There seemed to be wings on her slippers and even the flower-pattern on the child’s dress seemed alive and immortal. When old, she remembered every detail of bark and twig, a poignant memory like an indelible photograph of a world wherein goodness and beauty reigned. Recurrently throughout her life, more real than the events which we speak of as really important, came the inspiration of this vision. Why? I believe because she captured in that timeless realization an idea of the victorious nature of the human soul. Surely this is “touching the hem of the garment.”

Perhaps if we become real students of life, these experi­ences will become more frequent, at least for those who cultivate them, for I am certain we are fed according to our own call or need. Mind could have no purpose here unless it were to bring order where now reigns a tragic disorder and a plotless waste. Solomon and Shakespeare sensed this. For it is the feeling of frustration that enrages the human soul. It is the picture of inadequacy, both in the personal and in the national scene, in contradiction to all our inborn convictions, that preys upon man to destroy him, body and mind—or mind, then body. For the only real victories are those gained within—the occasional triumphs of purpose over dumb, racial fumbling.

The great performance of Man on Earth changes its stage-lighting, let us say from candle to incandescent globe, but the drama remains much the same unless viewed with a detachment worthy of a Being so keenly aware of its pro­gression as never to be over-awed or confused. To find such illumination, we must adjust the focus of our mental-sights to something which seems more remote, but is more real, than the world of nature-forms; in truth, toward that shadowy something partially sensed in poetry, music, and meditative worship, which is nearer the Essence and truth of forms.

It is this understanding Self that is the shaper of des­tinies, and to which we must hearken—the silent voice of the Knower within, occasionally heard as conscience or as inspiration above the din and confusion of world-mind. For it is this Real Thinker who is the builder and whose wis-dom is divine. He it is who is at home in the great universe. It is He alone who can cognize the truth back of this drama of changing forms, and He alone who can introduce order and truth and beauty where now are con­fusion and chance.

So it is not natural to the vision of untutored mortal-mind to grasp the Universal other than by some process of illumi-nation—some earned unity with True Self. The present is one picture in a sequence appearing between the past of memory and the future of possibility—a drawing on the face of nature to be erased and re-drawn to ever better proportions. Life will never be static.

Neither is there a universal realm of fixed truth, for these Soul-builders will create the mosaic of life. What Divine Son, containing within his seed-germ the unity of all duality, the power of both Will and Love, the combined inheritance of Mother-Father God, will halt his journey when the already-at-hand Incomes too shallow an ac­quaintance? When an earth-unit ceases to assimilate its substance, refuses to function, we say it dies. But there is no death for Egos.

Beyond the relational thinking of form life there must be realms of realization requiring tools more delicately tem­pered, more subtly direct than any of earth. Into these it is not our purpose to probe, except to establish clearly the pattern of earth-man and his earth-mind as a symbolic tool of the Ego-Thinker. This idea is worthy of our medi­tative consideration. For the Egos are the units of creative intelligence which comprise the power of the Holy Ghost, the Christ or Master consciousness, which the historical person, Jesus, personified. Such are the Sons of the Body of God.

Where men have failed is in the recognition of their ability, first in Real mind (heaven), and then in form (on earth), to control at will the universal energy which is substance—the clothing, as it were, of ideas.

All aspects of life are “thinkable.” This we have proved to some extent, even as we slowly and mechanically de­stroy, in order to understand, the forms about us. If there were no mental pole to the Life Force which expresses in these forms, reason could never trace its processes or hope to build better ones.

So back of inspirational thinking lives an Ego, willing to express through a receptive intellect as God is willing to express through His child. The destiny of man on earth is in the hands of those who will think. Life and religion cannot be separated, for a man’s religion is his process of interpreting life. Those truly live who have a true religion. The doors of human freedom are just beginning to open. There are many doors just as there is much ingenuity, but all lead to that unity which ever has been the dream of men.

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