Jackie and the Blind Man

Photo:

Esther Chilcutt

In my post Bible Studies, Setting Intentions, and Lucid Dreaming I started to explain how inspiration to dive into specific parts of the Bible can come from different sources and how watching the film Jackie led me on a very fruitful exploration.

I was a bit disappointed by the film itself, not having read the synopsis I had assumed that it was a film about her life and not just about a very specific period, but it was well worth the time spent watching.  The inspiration came at about 1 hour into the film when a priest Jackie was talking to cited a passage from the Bible:

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.   And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?   Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.   I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.   As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.   When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,   And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. - John 9

My attention was caught by the part about the clay on the eyes and the pool of Siloam. I'd heard Neville cite the the question about who had sinned but I don't recall hearing or reading any explanation about the clay on the eyes.  So I turned to Charles Fillmore's Metaphysical Bible Dictionary to see if there was anything to throw some light on this and here is what I found:

clay (John 9:6).
Metaphysical. Jesus anointed the blind man's eyes with clay. This is to symbolize the specific idea that stands in the way of clear vision. Clay represents a belief in materiality; a belief that certain manifest substances are matter and are void of the inherent powers and qualities of Being, which are omnipresent. The false idea that there is a lack of life, substance, and intelligence anywhere must be denied away, since it puts the soul in bondage: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." 

"Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" means to deny away the false idea.

So the false idea is the belief in materiality; a belief that certain manifest substances are matter and are void of the inherent powers and qualities of Being, which are omnipresent. In other words in the belief that our bodies and the world we live in are separate from God. By buying into the illusion that the objects and people "we" interact with are separate from, and outside of, the I of each of us. This is what puts our soul in bondage and makes us believe we have to fight or push back against the shadows which are our own creation.When the truth really starts to really set in we see what an achievement that is in itself and applying the law just gets easier and easier.

This takes us back to the foundation stone which is the belief that: the Universe is infinite response and the one who causes it is the individual perceiver. That nothing is independent of our perception of it and that as we awake we can detach ourselves from this machine and make life as we wish it to be. “For man is all Imagination and God is man and exists in us and we in him.” “The eternal body of man is the Imagination: that is God himself.”

But how to remove this clay from our eyes?


My next step was to check out Siloam and Shiloah as Charles Fillmore states that both names refer to the same place (which remember, represents a state of consciousness).

Isaiah 8:6 tells of "the waters of Shiloah that go softly."
Metaphysical. The flowing forth of peace throughout the consciousness (a sending forth) by a putting away of error and a giving of attention to Spirit ("that go softly" bespeaks attentiveness and obedience, also quietness.

So I went into the silence with my eyes open and then I reminded myself of all I had learned so far before asking myself some questions. This led to an answer in the form of an experience. I could try to describe this experience but you really need to have it or a similar one yourself because:

Intellectual thoughts become permanent only when the intellect is quickened by Spirit and becomes transmuted into spiritual consciousness. - Charles Fillmore, Metaphysical Bible Dictionary.

One question you can ask yourself is: What is my understanding of the statement:

 There is nothing but God!