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The Mind that moves, the Love that stills

A Christian Science perspective: Movement and stillness come from an identical source.

  • By The editors of the Christian Science Sentinel

Consider this. There is only one divine Mind, the knower of all. This Mind is the consciousness of supreme good, the one supreme God, and forever continues to be who and what He is. It is the momentum of this Mind that impels all progress, forwards advancement, and energizes innovation.

Pure Mind is also pure Love. It is the stillness of divine Love that calms any uproar, quiets every outburst, and gentles all upheaval. Movement and stillness. We don’t usually think of them as synonymous terms, and yet they come from an identical source, the Mind that is pure Love and the Love that is pure Mind.

They dawn at the same moment, abide in the same locale, and function in keeping with the same intelligent source. In her primary work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy sums things up with utter simplicity. She says, “Mind is the source of all movement ...” (p. 283). In another of her writings – and utilizing Love as a synonym for God – she adds a related point: “[T]here remaineth ... a peace in Love. The thought of it stills complaint;…” (“Message to The Mother Church for 1902,” p. 19). Taken together, these passages contribute a world of spiritual insight into the Mind that moves and the Love that stills. Perfect balance, divine stability, and healing – spiritual healing – follow in the path of these heavenly insights, just as Jesus proved in his life and through his healing work.

Picture this. You decide to go out for a bicycle ride. It is a breezy day. Part of the course you will be cycling along aligns perfectly with the direction of the wind – say, due south. On the same part of your course, your speed – as you zip along – matches perfectly the speed of the wind, say 40 miles per hour. Once you reach this section of your ride, you notice an unexpected phenomenon. Shrubs growing just to the right or just to the left of the roadway are bent low in the stiff 40-m.p.h. wind. But you, racing along at the exact same speed, and traveling in precisely the same direction as the wind, are enveloped in utter stillness. For you it is a moment of absolute windlessness, despite all the surroundings of a windy day. You don’t feel ruffled by the wind, despite all the evidence of wind everywhere you look.

Divine Mind and infinite Love. Spiritual movement and uncompromised stillness. They coexist naturally and normally. They appear in the same moment. When there is a need for utter quietude in your life, you can have it straight from Love. Additionally, if there is call for forward momentum in your life, you can have that, too, coming from the one source, the one Mind. Realize these facts in prayer, and you’ll glimpse hints of them expressed in your daily life.

From an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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