P1479:1, 133:7.1
Shortly the travelers set sail for Cyprus, stopping at Rhodes. They enjoyed
the long water voyage and arrived at their island destination much rested
in body and refreshed in spirit.
P1479:2, 133:7.2
It was their plan to enjoy a period of real rest and play on this visit to
Cyprus as their tour of the Mediterranean was drawing to a close. They landed
at
Paphos and at once began the assembly of supplies for their sojourn of
several weeks in the near-by mountains. On the third day after their arrival
they started for the hills with their
well-loaded pack animals.
P1479:3, 133:7.3
For two weeks the trio greatly enjoyed themselves, and then, without warning,
young Ganid was suddenly taken grievously ill. For two weeks he suffered from
a raging fever, oftentimes becoming
delirious; both Jesus and Gonod were kept
busy attending the sick boy. Jesus skillfully and tenderly cared for the lad,
and the father was amazed by both the gentleness and
adeptness manifested
in all his ministry to the afflicted youth. They were far from human habitations,
and the boy was too ill to be moved; so they prepared as best they could to
nurse him back to health right there in the mountains.
P1479:4, 133:7.4
During Ganid's
convalescence of three weeks Jesus told him many interesting
things about nature and her various moods. And what fun they had as they wandered
over the mountains, the boy asking questions, Jesus answering them, and the
father
marveling at the whole performance.
P1479:5, 133:7.5
The last week of their sojourn in the mountains Jesus and Ganid had a long
talk on the functions of the human mind. After several hours of discussion
the lad asked this question: "But, Teacher, what do you mean when you say
that man experiences a higher form of self-consciousness than do the higher
animals?" And as restated in modern phraseology, Jesus answered:
P1479:6, 133:7.6
My son, I have already told you much about the mind of man and the divine
spirit that lives therein, but now let me emphasize that self-consciousness
is a reality. When any animal becomes self-conscious, it becomes a
primitive man. Such an attainment results from a co-ordination of function
between impersonal energy and
spirit-conceiving mind, and it is this phenomenon
which warrants the bestowal of an absolute focal point for the human personality,
the spirit of the Father in heaven.
P1479:7, 133:7.7
Ideas are not simply a record of sensations; ideas are sensations plus the
reflective interpretations of the personal self; and the self is more than
the sum of one's sensations. There begins to be something of an approach to
unity in an evolving selfhood, and that unity is derived from the indwelling
presence of a part of absolute unity which spiritually activates such a self-conscious
animal-origin mind.
P1479:8, 133:7.8
No mere animal could possess a time self-consciousness. Animals possess a
physiological co-ordination of associated
sensation-recognition and memory
thereof, but none experience a meaningful recognition of sensation or exhibit
a purposeful association of these combined physical experiences such as is
manifested in the conclusions of intelligent and reflective human interpretations.
And this fact of self-conscious existence, associated with the reality of
his subsequent spiritual experience, constitutes man a potential son of the
universe and foreshadows his eventual attainment of the Supreme Unity of the
universe.
P1480:1, 133:7.9
Neither is the human self merely the sum of the successive states of consciousness.
Without the effective functioning of a consciousness sorter and
associator
there would not exist sufficient unity to warrant the designation of a selfhood.
Such an ununified mind could hardly attain conscious levels of human status.
If the associations of consciousness were just an accident, the minds of all
men would then exhibit the uncontrolled and random associations of certain
phases of mental madness.
P1480:2, 133:7.10
A human mind, built up solely out of the consciousness of physical sensations,
could never attain spiritual levels; this kind of material mind would be utterly
lacking in a sense of moral values and would be without a guiding sense of
spiritual dominance which is so essential to achieving harmonious personality
unity in time, and which is inseparable from personality survival in eternity.
P1480:3, 133:7.11
The human mind early begins to manifest qualities which are supermaterial;
the truly reflective human intellect is not altogether bound by the limits
of time. That individuals so differ in their life performances indicates,
not only the varying endowments of heredity and the different influences of
the environment, but also the degree of unification with the indwelling spirit
of the Father which has been achieved by the self, the measure of the identification
of the one with the other.
P1480:4, 133:7.12
The human mind does not well stand the conflict of double allegiance. It is
a severe strain on the soul to undergo the experience of an effort to serve
both good and evil. The supremely happy and efficiently unified mind is the
one wholly dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven.
Unresolved
conflicts destroy unity and may terminate in mind disruption. But the survival
character of a soul is not fostered by attempting to secure peace of mind
at any price, by the surrender of noble aspirations, and by the compromise
of spiritual ideals; rather is such peace attained by the stalwart assertion
of the triumph of that which is true, and this victory is achieved in the
overcoming of evil with the potent force of good.
P1480:5, 133:7.13
The next day they departed for
Salamis, where they embarked for Antioch on
the Syrian coast.