Jesus' Discourse on the Mind 

Jesus gave discourses on many subjects during his private and public ministry. His discourse on mind was sparked by questions from a young man he was tutoring. This young man, Ganid, was the son of a wealthy trader from India. The trader, Gonod, hired Jesus as a translator for a tour around the Mediterranean to meet with his trading partners. When Jesus was not helping Gonod with his business transactions, he tutored Ganid.

Ganid was a bright student and listened closely to all that Jesus said. While the trio were vacationing in Cyprus, Ganid wanted to hear what Jesus had to say about the mind. After several hours of discussion, the lad asked, "Teacher, what do you mean when you say that man experiences a higher form of self-consciousness than do the higher animals?"

Jesus said the following, restated in modern language: Self-consciousness is a reality. When an animal becomes self-conscious, it becomes a primitive being. Such an achievement results from a coordination of function between impersonal energy and spirit-conceiving mind, and it is this phenomenon that justifies the bestowal of an absolute focal point for the human personality, the Father's spirit in heaven.

Animal and human minds possess memory, but animals cannot associate those memories to create spiritual experience and cosmic insight. Self-consciousness, the ability to reflect on spirit values and meanings, has within it the potential for spiritual experience, and such experience separates humans from animals.

Ideas are not simply a record of sensations; they are reflective interpretations of the personal self, and the self is more than the sum of one’s sensations. The mind sorts and associates sensations and ideas and then reflects on them. Without this ability to sort, associate, and reflect, the self would have little or no control over thinking. Uncontrolled thinking is the equivalent of madness.

The ability to create ideas, exercise imagination, and make decisions occurs in the mind. It includes the capacity to evaluate and reflect on spiritual ideals and estimate moral worth. Decisions favoring divine attunement foster and precede the attainment of higher and higher spiritual levels. The human mind can manifest qualities that are supermaterial; the truly reflective and spiritualized human intellect is not altogether bound by the limits of time.

Jesus explained that the nature of God's indwelling presence is absolute unity, which spiritually activates a self-conscious mind. If one’s ideas and motives are in harmony with divine ideals and spirit values, a unity of selfhood evolves. Attainment of higher levels of self-unity foreshadows eternal cooperation and infinite expansion.

The degree of unification of free will personality with the indwelling spirit of God is the source of the differences between individuals. Heredity and environment may delay or advance that unification. Still, the exercise of free will choosing to do the divine will, regardless of heredity or environment, determines destiny. Such choosing can occur nowhere else but in the mind of the God-indwelt personality.

Jesus taught that it is a severe strain on the soul to attempt to serve both good and evil. The conflict is mentally and spiritually disruptive. The 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.

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, or by the compromise of spiritual ideals. Instead, such peace is attained by the persistent assertion of that which is true, and this victory is achieved in the overcoming of evil with the potent force of good. The survival character of a soul is nurtured by the unwavering commitment to that which is true and the triumph of good over evil.

Jesus’ mind was wholly unified, God-identified, and free of conflict. By studying his way of thinking and acting and seeking harmony with God's mind, the self experiences a deeper connection with its source and actualizes the potentials needed for eternal existence.