All hat ...no cowboy!


Notes and References 10/15/00
All Hat, No Cowboy!

Referring to an article in one of the editions of the Journal, Mrs. Eddy comments upon the following reference to the cat in Alice in Wonderland. She states, “One of these extracts is the story of the Cheshire Cat, which "vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone." Was this a witty or a happy hit at idealism, to illustrate the author's following point? — "When philosophy becomes fairy-land, in which neither laws of nature nor the laws of reason hold good, the attempt of phenomenism to conceive the universe as a phenomenon without a noumenon may succeed, but not before; for it is an attempt to conceive a grin without cat." Mis 116)

Male ego vs women’s rights
Sitcoms such as Ali McBeal and Friends, movies, billboards, department stores and much of the popular music would have you believe false material claims of what the ideal man or woman is. (In a sense hypnotizing you into not seeing the truth about yourself.) They are well produced and design. They are humorous and fun. But, don’t for a minute believe any of it. The so called independent women portrayed in media is not typically one with a spiritually discerned individuality. Rather we see a gender game where one’s physical nature determines the outcome. It is the grin without the cat. The outward appearance without the substance of the idea. The “phenomenon without a noumenon”. All hat...no cowboy!

Mrs. Eddy tells us often to beware of personality and another’s corporeality. She also asks us if there is enough of a “flatterer, a fool or a liar to offend a whole souled woman”. Thought must become inspired and uplifted to see our true selves. The real thing!

Two ladies visit the hypnotist.
This story is about two class-taught Christian Scientists who were curious about hypnotism and how it worked. So, they decided to visit a hypnotist at his home, and did so after making an appointment. Upon arriving, the hypnotist asked them to go out into the garden and wait for him while he made some lemonade. He would then join them. He encouraged them to enjoy his rose garden. They went out back and looked for the rose garden. They looked everywhere but no rose garden. As they looked at each other somewhat confused the hypnotist came out with the lemonade. He pointed to the roses and said, “Aren’t they beautiful?”. They turned and right in front of them was a magnificent rose garden. They left quickly, quite perplexed. They went to see their teacher to ask what had happened. He said, “Oh my, don’t you remember what I taught you? While you were in the house he hypnotized you not to see the roses. That is how hypnotism works. You are not hypnotized to see what is not there. You are, instead hypnotized to not see what is there!”

It material identity we seek is all a fake, a counterfeit, a grin without a cat. It is FUSTIAN:

In vain do the manger and the cross tell their story to pride and fustian. (S&H 142:15-16)
Students Ref.: n. 1. a kind of coarse twill cotton stuff. 2. an inflated style of writing in which high sounding words are used above the dignity of the thoughts or subject; a swelling style; bombast.

In other words it is like cotton candy. Looks like a lot but it is full of air. It is nothing. And all the time that the world holds the material ideal before your eye you have been hypnotized not to see the spiritual ideal which is the only truth there is. Being wakened from this mesmeric trance allows us to see clearly health and happiness. Healing is the result. So, now, you are all healers and I will refer to you as such.

We have talked about the wrong way to view our experience. Now let’s look at the correct way to view life. There are four rivers in Genesis. These are the same rivers in Ezekial and again in Revelation. They are listed in order below in Gen 2:

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Lets look at Mrs. Eddy’s definition of these Bible terms from her chapter “Glossary” in out textbook:

PISON (river). The love of the good and beautiful, and their immortality. (S&H 593:1)

GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged morally, civilly, and socially. (S&H 587:3)

HIDDEKEL (river). Divine Science understood and acknowledged. (S&H 588:5)

EUPHRATES (river). Divine Science encompassing the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the place of physics; the reign of righteousness. (S&H 585:16)

There it is: 1st love everything good and beautiful and see that nature as infinite; 2nd acknowledge the rights of women morally, socially and civilly; 3rd, work to acknowledge and understand Divine Science, and 4th, keep your thought on the true idea of God, seeing Divine Science embracing the whole world. These are the four key points to advancing mankind spiritually and our foundation from which to build a greater understanding in this class.

Are you a Christian Scientist?
Well, that depends. A Christian is one who practices the Golden Rule, who is compassionate, forgiving, loving and kind. He/she is meek, patient and humble. He/she “turns the other cheek.” A scientist is one who is absolute, basis everything on unchanging principle is demanding, critical and demands proofs not just words. If we are as compassionate as a Christian in our dealing with others, and as demanding as a scientist in our dealing with ourselves then we are a Christian Scientist. But isn’t it tempting to be forgiving, turn the other cheek and be understanding with ourselves and our own mistakes, and demanding, critical and absolute with the other guy?

For now I will just call myself a student of Christian Science with a long way to go before I can really claim to be one. Our view of others therefore should reflect this kind of compassion. Look at Mrs. Eddy’s article, “Taking Offence”:

Mis 224:
We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms. Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities;

Nothing short of our own errors should offend us. He who can wilfully attempt to injure another, is an object of pity rather than of resentment; while it is a question in my mind, whether there is enough of a flatterer, a fool, or a liar, to offend a whole-souled woman.

“Appreciation of everything beautiful, great and good” and “Whole souled woman”!!!!! Sound familiar. Doesn’t that coincide with the first two rivers?


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