Butterworth's Theology of Non-Resistance - Continued

As we continue to explore EB's theology of non-resistance, let's see what one of Unity's foremothers, Imelda Octavia Shanklin, says about non-resistance in her classic book, What Are You?, first published in 1929.  The last chapter of this book is titled, "Nonresistance."  Here Shanklin specifically defines what nonresistance is: "Nonresistance is stronger than resistance; its practice requires more mind capacity than is required for resistance; its appeal is to the divine thing in you.  It is the essence of God (p. 142).  . . . The essence of nonresistance is unity.  You are not isolated from the rest of the universe.  You are an indispensable part of the universe . . . . The practice of nonresistance becomes easy when you take the attitude toward the universe in entirety and toward each entity of the universe in particular that the universe takes toward you" (p. 146).

In Unity of All Life (UAL), EB explores this idea in the chapter "From Futility to Meaning."  In a discussion about the question Why, EB explains what he calls "the why of resistance."  He says that this why is an "expression of rebellion against some undesirable situation.  It does not really want to know the Truth.  It prefers to consider itself the victim of an evil 'frame-up.'  There may be a feeling that a thing came about by God's will for some inscrutable reason of His own.  Or there is the feeling that great injustices are perpetrated on helpless humanity by the forces 'they say' are out to get you.  This 'Why?' is a loud 'how dare you to do this to me' directed against life in general" (p. 33).  EB goes on to say that the resistance is implicitly criticizing God.  But by criticizing God, if such a thing were actually possible, EB says that those who resist just don't understand the nature of "the Infinite" and their own ability to be one with life.  Thus, if a person accepts his/her part of a divine universe, as a divine being in it, then there is nothing to resist.  The belief that God did something to us implies that God is "out there somewhere" (many people point upward) who is capricious and might be angry at us if we don't obey the rules (whatever they are).  EB says, "The question. 'Why doesn't God . . .?' presupposes a duality, God 'out there' and man 'down here'" (p. 34).

And yet many of us realize that God cannot "do" anything.  It is we who make choices and decisions about how we will live and more important, how we will deal with what happens to us.  One aspect of resistance could be seen in the concept of failure, which EB also discusses in this same chapter of UAL.  For some, success, as they define it, is a benchmark in itself.  Goals just become stepping stones on a road to the ever-undefinable success.  So as EB points out, people see failure as not achieving their goals and believe that they have failed themselves and/or others.  But as EB also explains, modern research has been called 'the art of successful failing'" (p. 37).  How many of us have been resistant even once to trying something new because we might fail.  This is almost being resistant to success.  If I do not try, I cannot succeed.  Or as we know the popular phrase: "Nothing ventured; nothing gained."  What if Edison had given up after the 500th time the lightbulb did not work?

As EB further explains, "Experiences are not good or bad of themselves.  They become to us what we see them as being.  We always have the choice tediously to go through them, or victoriously to grow through them.  And, more than we know, meaning in life comes from our right of choice, the choice to have faith, to believe in deeper realities, to see the larger horizon" (pp. 39-40).  Perhaps you've seen the motivational poster of a boat out to sea with the caption, "To explore new horizons, we must first lose sight of the shore."  We need to be nonresistant to change, the unknown, rocking waves, turbulent seas and yes, even, metaphorical seasickness if we want to achieve our own level of success, as we define it.  We would be foolish to believe that the sea is against us in a storm, when the sea is just being the sea.  We decide whether we are getting into the boat and whether we will heed the weather reports.  EB says, "The 'Why?' of a thing is never in the experience.  It is only in the person" (p. 40).  We decide how we will steer the boat and to which place we will sail.  And, most important, we can change course anytime we want because we can choose not only how we will live, but how we will react to what happens to us.

Near the conclusion of this chapter, EB explains that life is lived from the inside out, and that life cannot be lived the other way.  Yet, he believes, people are resistant to their experiences because this is how they live and furthermore because they "try to endow life with meaning through seeking meaning in experiences" (p. 41).  When we focus on what we want and then do not receive it, we often make this "failure" mean something.  And then we may get caught up in what EB calls the 'whirling circumference of life,'" (p. 41) to which we also endow meaning.  But just as Shanklin does, EB also reminds us that we are the ones who in and of ourselves have meaning.  As we see ourselves as part of a divine, abundant universe, we see ourselves, as EB says, "in the unity of all life.  This means that we must find ourselves in the whole, must realize that the whole of Spirit is within us.  It is not just a matter of 'finding God.' . . . It is more a matter of finding ourselves at the point of our own divinity" (p. 42).  And this is exactly where non-resistance comes in, for if I accept my divinity in this great and wonderful universe, it follows that I also must accept those moments when I have forgotten this inherent divinity and made choices or taken action that are not for my highest and best good.  

{To Be Continued}