Part 73

b. Evolution and the aim of life:

1. Fitness and harmony the test of life.

2. It goes from likeness to unlikeness and recognition.

3. Pain, disease, death and changing standards of good and bad are the path of progress toward wholeness and understanding.

c. Evolution the simplest, clearest proof of relationship.

FIFTH MEETING

Prayer

I. A COMMUNION, NOT A BEGGING:

a. In a world that goes toward its own desire—which is also ours—it is folly to ask one’s vast Self for anything.

b. Prayer is a momentary consciousness of the vast Self which is God.

II. THE VALUE OF PRAYER:

a. To be conscious, by an effort, of the vast oneness, gives us renewed calmness and strength.

b. To pray for what we can be is to call forth the power to be it.

c. Prayer puts us in a state of mind in which we draw upon the endless source of power and possibility:

1. The value, therefore, of prayer before sleep.

III. THE MANNER OF PRAYER:

a. By conscious words that give the communion.

b. By an occasional state of mind.

c. By every creative action.

d. By the whole attitude of our life.

SIXTH MEETING

Immortality

I. IMPORTANCE TO US OF AN OPINION CONCERNING DEATH AND IMMORTALITY:

a. We know we must die soon:

1. Speak of the numberless generations of life.

b. We live according to our expectations:

1. Relation throughout history of beliefs concerning immortality and of the morality of peoples.

2. Good and bad effects of belief in heaven and hell.