WE NEED TO AVOID BEING BEMUSED

By Anthony J. Whitehouse, CS

It is our bemusement with error, our curiosity with whether eating the forbidden fruit is really that big a deal which gets us into trouble. Rather than being bemused with error we need to dwell on absolute Truth and the perfection of being because, absent such dwelling, error will keep us well occupied with various intriguing bemusements. An activity formally known as mesmerism within the movement.

If you start experiencing stomach pains, the unprepared mind is going to start looking for causes and figuring out solutions, even metaphysical solutions, rather than avoiding the bemusement the challenge represents. After all, if you are rummaging around in an illusion, you are not dwelling on truth and perfection of being. It may appear legitimate to ask “how I am going to deal with this" but it is actually just bemusement. It is the bemusement that needs avoiding.

The man by the pool of Bethesda spent 30 years bemused by the idea of getting into the pool first. Jesus disabused him of such bemusement and he took up his bed and walked. So rather than trying to resolve an issue, avoid the bemusement it represents.

The word bemuse is interesting:

bemuse (v.)
"to make utterly confused, put into muse or reverie, muddle, stupefy," from be- + muse (compare amuse); attested from 1735 but probably older, as Pope (1705) punned on it as "devoted utterly to the Muses."

But the verb muse is more relevant to my argument

muse (v.)
"to reflect, ponder, meditate; to be absorbed in thought," mid-14c., from Old French muser (12c.) "to ponder, dream, wonder; loiter, waste time," which is of uncertain origin; the explanation in Diez and Skeat is literally "to stand with one's nose in the air" (or, possibly, "to sniff about" like a dog who has lost the scent), from muse "muzzle," from Gallo-Roman *musa "snout," itself a word of unknown origin. The modern word probably has been influenced in sense by muse (n.). Related: Mused; musing.

Anthony J. Whitehouse, CS, is a Christian Science practitioner in Coppet, Switzerland. Connect with Anthony»