Laws - An Overview

Here are a few spiritual quotes from various spiritual awareness classes that may provide a broader understanding of divine laws and spiritual laws.

From Church Lecture 14:

 "There are natural laws governing form or creation. When those laws of nature are transgressed, then man suffers, if you wish to call it that, the consequences. When we learn about these laws governing nature, we abide with them and flow with their immutableness because it is foolish to do otherwise." 

From Church Lecture 3, one of the purposes of the Living Light Philosophy is shared.

 "It is our purpose to reveal to mankind these demonstrable spiritual, mental, and physical laws."

From Church Question and Answer 27:

 "The world is here to be used, to be enjoyed. We cannot use it properly, we cannot enjoy it fully until we understand the laws that govern it. For when we understand the law that governs anything, it is the first step in gaining control over it. And so, if we do not make the daily effort to understand the laws of the experiences that we encounter, then there is no way that we can ever gain control over them."

From CC 47, in response to a question on physical and spiritual laws, this was given:

 "The lady has asked in reference to this Association's Declaration of Principles, What are the physical and spiritual laws governing life? They are as numbered, my good students, as the hairs upon your head, and then some. However, let us be practical, perhaps to find a simple example. You will accept there is such a thing in the physical world known as the Law of Gravity, won't you? That is known as a physical law.  Will you accept a spiritual law that states that like attracts like and becomes the Law of Attachment? Has that been proven to your satisfaction by your own mind? That's a spiritual law. Now, from that point, friends, we must expand. It is a spiritual law that forgiveness frees our soul; it frees our thought. That is a spiritual law. And so it is that as we spend a little time to ponder and to think---Will you accept the spiritual law that says that man is a law unto himself, that all of our experiences are the effect and never the cause? Those are spiritual laws. I hope that's helped."

And from CC 106, the relationship between affirmations and divine law is given.

 "My good students, you have received over these many years several affirmations. These affirmations are a declaration and an establishment of divine law in consciousness. But the law cannot be established unless you direct the energy through your own attention and effort to the law that is infallible. When you make this greater effort to affirm the truth in your consciousness, to affirm it again, again and again, 'Nothing happens to me that is not caused by me,' you will start on the path of freedom and success.

"We all know that there are no accidents in any universe; that an accident is a lack of understanding natural law. The bondage of man is the ego's insistence upon blaming things outside of its domain, things that it does not in its mind appreciate. This delusion has been fed so much energy for so many years. It takes constant affirming of truth to be freed from it. Only the law established by the minds of men has put man's soul in bondage; only the divine immutable law of God can put it in freedom.

"And so, my good students, again and again we repeat to you the law that is. We have given unto you all of the mechanics, so to speak, that are necessary, but you must make the effort to think more deeply and more often. The world in which you live is governed and controlled by the laws that you have established in your yesterdays, but you are not without the way to free  yourself. Each time you speak, law is established. Each time you think, law is established. We gave to you that great truth that man is a law unto himself and we asked you the question, 'What are you doing with the law that you are?'"

From CC 113:

 "It is the introducing into the limited mind of demonstrable laws, that, once having been accepted by the mind, will become the very instrument used by the mind to free itself from its own limitation. For that is the very nature of the mind: to use whatever it grasps ahold of for its own benefit."

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The Law of Personal Responsibility

There are many aspects to the Law of Personal Responsibility, which is the foundation of the philosophy, and here are a few.

From CC 179 we learn:

 "You see, my friends, in the experiences of yesteryear, we have denied fatherhood and motherhood of those experiences because we have permitted our mind to blame outside what was truly taking place and caused inside. Each time you permit your mind to put the responsibility or blame for any experience in your life on anything outside of you,you establish the Law of Denial and begin to walk on the destiny of that denial to serve that judgment. This is very important on the path of your own freedom. The very foundation of the Living Light philosophy—its foundation stone is the Law of Personal Responsibility. When you begin to accept the ability that is your divine right—to respond to all of your experiences—when you begin to accept your birthright of the ability to respond to life and you free yourself from the delusion of giving that ability to things you blame outside of your own personal life, then you will free yourself from the destiny of denial and you will not perpetrate those experiences of yesterday."

In CC 188 we are given:

 "And when our hindsight becomes our foresight, we will then have insight. And it is insight—the looking within—that’s where your gold mine is; that’s where all things precious to you are waiting for you. Do not chase the universes looking for them. You will not find them. They’re waiting within you. But you must first establish the Law of Going Within. And you cannot, nor can I, do that until we accept that’s where it is. Truly, my good students, that’s where it is. Many a philosopher for many and many a century has told the same truth to the world. It is within.

"Accept the Law of Personal Responsibility, for that is the first door that must be opened to go within. Open the first door and the other doors will not be so difficult for you. Open it today. Open it this moment. There is nothing to fear, for faith, the very principle of the Eternal Being, will light your path through the forest and you will find that sanctuary that is yours, that you have wandered from out into these mental worlds back, back to you, the true you. All of the coverings, they’re in a process of going. Walk along the path this moment. As you go deeper and deeper within, you will see that tiny spark. And then it’ll get brighter and brighter. And then all of these forms, they will pass—the forms of the mind and the forms of the worlds of creation. There, you will find the warmth, the comfort, and the great peace that is truly you. Find that this moment within yourself, for that is the light, the light of your path. And it will take you to these heavenly heights, where all worry and all activity of the human mind doth pass. Above and beyond, that is your home. Though you have wandered far, you shall return. If you, in those efforts of meditation, return each day, then your flame of life will be brighter and brighter and brighter."

In CC 193 we are given:

 "Whether or not you choose to fulfill your life in your present earth form or you make that choice of fulfillment in another realm, another planet, and another time, the principle of the Law of Personal Responsibility will not change. The moment that we accept that demonstrable principle, in that moment we stand at the very head of our ship. Each moment that you declare that truth, each moment that you fully accept that truth, you are freed from the control of the forms that have already been created in your mental universe.

"Think, my good students, of that principle. Whatever your experiences of the moment, when you declare that truth, “I accept the responsibility within my own realm of consciousness. I and I alone have created and I and I alone can change,” when that is truly faced, in that moment—and each and every moment that you face that light of truth—you are in control. To remain in control of your life takes that moment-by-moment choice. It is worth the effort. It is the inevitable journey. It is in your own best interest to declare that truth each moment of your conscious awareness. Remember that acceptance of that truth puts you in control of your destiny."
 

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The Law of Givingness

From CC 139 we learn:

 "For example, say that you have the inspiration to give of your time, of your energy, and your efforts to something that you truly believe is worthwhile and good, first, for yourselves and then for the world. For unless you first accept that it is good for you, you cannot be qualified or in a position to accept that it is good for another. And so you give of your time, of your energy, of your efforts to something that you believe in. And in that giving, if you have thoughts of what you will receive or what is yet to be, then you can be rest assured that your gift is contaminated and now constitutes the principle of what is known to man as a loan. For you have placed upon the pure motivation of your eternal soul, you have placed a reservation, a limitation. And so in keeping with those laws that you alone have established in your givingness, shall you experience all of the obstructions and difficulties necessary in receiving.

"It has been often said that it is better to give than to receive. Now, what do you think, my good students, that the philosophers of old meant by that simple truth? ’Tis better to give than to receive, for to give, man is in a position to know, in truth, whether or not his gift is contaminated by the reservations, limitations, and mental dictates of his own mind. Ah, but to receive is something that takes a greater degree of effort, for to receive anything is to place yourself at the mercy of the laws that you, in error and ignorance, are accepting. Unless, through your own prayer, you honestly accept the gift from God the Divine, then only the purity in your receiving can enter your sphere and zone of action. So let us consider this Law of Givingness. Let us consider it in all of its aspects. And in this Law of Receiving, let us never forget that there is one Intelligence—and one inseparable Intelligence—that is flowing through everything."

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The Law of Harmony

From CC 217 we learn:

"We all have forty soul faculties and forty corresponding sense functions. When each faculty and each corresponding function is in balance, then you experience the Law of Harmony. For what that really is —when they are in balance, there is a perfect, unobstructed flow of the divine intelligent Energy.

 Now, how does one go about to bring forty soul faculties and forty sense functions into a state of balance? Any thought, any thought that you entertain in your mind that disturbs your peace of mind is directly related to a sense function which is out of balance with the corresponding soul faculty.

Now, you have been given a few of the triune soul faculties and sense functions. You’ve only been given a few for a very, very good reason. And that reason is simply stated in, Man values only that which he makes an effort to attain, and the value of his attainment is measured by his effort.

Now, when you have a thought that disturbs your peace of mind and your state of being of goodness, of feeling good, you can very easily with honest, honest investigation, you can very easily trace that thought to the sense function that gave it birth. Once knowing the sense function, your own inner being will clearly show the balance to that function. Now, if you make that effort and you make that effort daily, then you're going to bring these faculties and functions into balance, and you're going to experience the Law of Harmony, which is your thought. It becomes your thought when you make that effort."

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The Law of Commitment

From CC 80 we learn:

"Now, I would like to spend a little time this evening in discussion of respect and the Law of Commitment.

So many times we think, in reference to the commitments that we make in life, that we are committing ourselves to someone else, to a job, to a business, to an organization, or to a church. That, my friends, is not how the Law of Commitment works. Whenever we make a commitment, whatever that commitment is, it is a commitment to ourselves.

Now, there are many commitments that we find ourselves making in the course of one single day. What is it, we must ask ourselves, that motivates us to commit ourselves to anything? I’m sure we will all agree that usually it is some particular desire that we are entertaining at the moment. Now, when we commit ourselves to anything and we transgress the Law of Respect—that is, we do not fulfill the commitment that we have set into motion—we guarantee that transgression to return to us. For example, if a person with a particular desire commits himself to something, it is usually—usually—evident that the commitment is respected until such time as the desire, which is the motivating factor, is either fulfilled to his satisfaction or is changed.

Now, when we make these commitments in life and we do not respect them, when we once again have a desire expressing from the level of consciousness at which a transgression has been made by disrespect of a commitment, we guarantee disrespect of commitment for the fulfillment of the desire that we are seeking. And so it is that man, in life, is so often disappointed. He is disappointed because he disrespects and disregards the law. Now, the law has no emotion. The law is clear and totally impartial.

For example, in reference to commitment, we can use a very common occurrence in our daily life: the commitment of time. Now, we can say that time is an illusion created by the senses, and indeed time is an illusion created by the senses—and so is desire. However, we are living in a world of desire and we are living in a world of illusion and delusion. And so when we commit ourselves to a job or to anything—for example, say that we have a job. We know that the place of business at which we work starts at 10 a.m. We have committed ourselves, by accepting that job, to being there promptly at 10 a.m., for we, and we alone, are the ones who have accepted the job. We, and we alone, are the ones who have made the commitment—not to our employer; that is the illusion. We have made the commitment to ourselves. We have made the commitment to the fulfillment of our own desire.

Now, if we do not respect that commitment, if we decide, “Well, I’ll show up at two minutes past 10:00” or “I will show up at ten minutes past 10:00,” we guarantee in our lives the disappointments in a multitude of areas, for we live in a multitude of desires. We transgress, through disrespect, the Law of Commitment, because we have deluded ourselves into the thinking that we are committing ourselves to another person, place, or thing. And that is the furthest thing from the truth, my friends. Without respect for the Law of Commitment, there is no success. For—don’t you see, my friends—all things flow from the foundation of understanding. And understanding is consideration, and understanding is acceptance, and understanding is necessary to express the soul faculties of duty and gratitude and tolerance.

So if you are not successful in any particular area of your choosing, of your own desire, then search deeply and clearly into your soul. Search through your tape-bank computer. And there you will find the transgressions. There you will find the multitude of times that you have disregarded and disrespected your own law, for man is a law unto himself.

Now, we can easily tell whenever a desire is in process and unfulfilled, for we can see the beautiful flow and respect for the Law of Commitment concerning the desire. But because we have yet to gain control of our mind, we continue to disregard the law. We may say that we didn’t make that law and, true, we did not make it, but we merited being governed by it. If we think that we can rise above the universal laws of life that are applicable to the stars in space, applicable to the worms that crawl in the ground, applicable to man and the plants and the trees, then we have truly descended into the depths of darkness, into the errors of ignorance.

Let us ask ourselves the question, “What is the difficulty that we think we have in not being able to respect our own commitments?” Is it not because, at the moment that the commitment is demanding its fulfillment, we, at that moment, have now changed to another desire? We have lost control. And, my friends, personal responsibility is the foundation and teaching of this philosophy. And so when you think, after you have committed yourself to anything, that you are doing it for someone else, pause in your thinking, for you are doing it for no one, my friends, but yourself.” [CC 80]

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