Recording 462B, “Living the Life of Prayer,” was not used as source material for any book.
This recording was posted through May 4, 2024, and is no longer available on this website. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. You can also purchase the recording and/or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office here.
Recording 462B is titled “Living the Life of Prayer,” and it seems appropriate that our study suggestions should support actually living the life of prayer, instead of reading or hearing more about it. In this class, Joel speaks about several aspects of the life of prayer that we can practice. But instead of trying to practice them all at once, it can be helpful to take one each day and commit to practicing just that one for the day.
We prepared a document to help with this practice. It identifies seven of the aspects of the life of prayer that Joel presents in this class—one to practice for each day of the week—and includes some of Joel’s commentary about each. The document is given below, but you can also download and/or print this document either as a 5.5 x 8.5 inch booklet or as a standard 8.5 x 11 inch document.
This document suggests just one way to practice. You may want to choose a different approach. You might prefer to work on just one aspect for an entire week. Or you might choose to work with some aspect of prayer that we did not include. Perhaps a completely different way of practicing will be opened to you.
Whatever way you choose to practice, undoubtedly it will bring you to a deeper understanding of how to live the life of prayer as taught in The Infinite Way.
Living the Life of Prayer: A Practice to Accompany
Recording 462B: 1962 Los Angeles Closed Class, “Living the Life of Prayer”
Introduction
In Recording 462B, Joel says that living a life of prayer is the “most practical” way of living. But he emphasizes that we have to find this out for ourselves by actually living a life of prayer. And he points out that in proportion to the degree that we do practice a life of prayer, we can be a light unto the entire world.
Prayer is not something that you do at a certain hour of the day or on a certain day of the week. Prayer is not a power that you use. A life based on prayer is a way of life that has prayer as the foundation of each day and each act, and it is built on your understanding of truth.
Living a life of prayer is our means of blessing, of bestowing a benediction on others. It is our way of beholding God. It requires our recognition of the nature of evil as impersonal and impotent. In living a life of prayer, we abide in the Word, rest in the Word, relax in the Word. We abide in our Christhood.
Why live a life of prayer? Because something has touched us within that is calling us home, and we never will be happy until we find ourselves at home in God, in prayer, in Spirit, in Truth. That which is calling us home is functioning within us and will not let us alone until we arrive at the gate of heaven. It makes no difference how many times we stumble or make mistakes. It keeps us going, even when we know we are failing, even when we are not getting the fruitage, and even when we have doubts as to whether you are following the truth. We will pick ourselves up and start all over again. It will not let us give up because our time has come, and we will be fulfilled.
The Practice
Recording 462B is titled “Living the Life of Prayer,” and it seems appropriate that our study suggestions should support actually living the life of prayer, instead of reading or hearing more about it.
In this class, Joel speaks about several aspects of the life of prayer that we can practice. But instead of trying to practice them all at once, it can be helpful to take one each day and commit to practicing just that one for the day.
We have identified seven of the aspects of the life of prayer that Joel presents in this class—one to practice for each day of the week. For each aspect, we have included some of Joel’s commentary about that aspect.
This is just one suggestion for a way to practice. You may want to choose a different approach. You might prefer to work on just one aspect for an entire week. Or you might choose to work with some aspect of prayer that we did not include. Perhaps a completely different way of practicing will be opened to you.
Whatever way you choose to practice, undoubtedly it will bring you to a deeper understanding of how to live the life of prayer as taught in The Infinite Way.
Practice: Recognize every individual as the instrument of God, the very presence of God, that place where God shines through.
We are living in an attitude of prayer when we behold every individual as the Christ of God, the instrument of God. We are the living truth when we know that God is no respecter of persons; that God is the life, the mind, the soul, and the spirit of individual being; that even the body is the temple of God. Knowing this truth is living by prayer.
We do not judge, criticize, or condemn anyone for their faults. If we behold any form of discord or evil emanating from them—sin, disease, death, lack, limitation—we are living a life of prayer by recognizing that the discord or evil is not of them, but merely the carnal mind temporarily finding an outlet. By impersonalizing the discord or evil, we help to dispel it, and we bless the individual as much as we bless them when we recognize that they are the presence of God.
Practicing in this way is not identifiable as “prayer” to the world. Yet, it comes as close to living a life of prayer as you can get, because prayer is not seeking anything. Prayer is a bestowing. Prayer is not an instrument whereby we get, but an instrument whereby we give, share, bestow, recognize, bless.
In the evening, ask, “How well did I practice this today?”
Practice: Pray for your enemies, that the light be revealed in them. Forgive seventy times seven. Refrain from judgment and condemnation. Give, bestow, bless.
Through prayer, we are a blessing and a benediction to others. Through prayer, we are an instrument of love and truth to others. Two of the ways that we can give, bestow, and bless are praying for our enemies, that the light be revealed in them, and always forgiving, unto “seventy times seven.” “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
The life of prayer is a life of blessing others. When you feel the Presence, that Presence is your blessing to others. But the Presence is experienced only when we are living in prayer, and to live in prayer means to live without judgment or condemnation.
Once you have been touched in your heart, your life can be about blessing others, because there is never a reason to do anything for your own sake. Jesus’ contact with God not only enabled him to have a healthy body but to provide health for multitudes. His contact with the Spirit provided for his own needs, and so he did not have to pray for himself. Jesus had realized I, and I is God—Self-sufficient, Self-maintained, Self-sustained, infinite being. With that realization, the fulfillment of any need flows forth.
In the evening, ask, “Did I practice this today? How well did I do?”
Practice: Resist not evil.
We are praying when we do not resist evil, because then we are loving God supremely. You cannot love God supremely and believe there is another power.
We are never praying when we are seeking a God-power to do something to evil. Live in the continuous recognition that God is omnipotence, the only power, and that temporal power is not power. In and of itself, evil is neither a power nor presence. It has no law to support it. God didn’t create it, and God is the only creator, “too pure to behold iniquity.” Abide in the consciousness of God as one power, one life, one love, one being.
Forego temporal power and trust spiritual power, even though constantly there are temptations to believe in two powers and to sit in judgment. But we must handle every such temptation with the remembrance, “I do not accept any powers but spiritual law, spiritual life, spiritual being, spiritual presence. I shall not live by might or by power, but by the grace of I, which is within me.” Then relax in the realization of God as the only power and the only presence. With that steadfast realization, the so-called evil appearance fades away into its own nothingness.
Evil functions as a power only in the consciousness of those who accept two powers. When you fight evil persons or conditions, you are outside of prayer. “Resist not evil.”
In the evening, ask, “Did I practice this today? How well did I do?”
Practice: Abide in your Christhood. Recognize the nature of the Christ and let the Christ flow from you.
To pray aright is to recognize the nature of the Christ. The Christ is not a temporal power that we can use to overcome people or conditions, or to go out and get something for us.
Christ is Spirit, and Christ is the spirit of love. The Christ is a Presence we can loose into the world through love, through truth, and through blessing others. Prayer is an activity of the Christ that flows through us to bless the world, and in blessing the world, it blesses us, because we are part of the world.
The Christ does not judge or condemn. It holds no one in guilt. It forgives seventy times seven. It says, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” So put up your sword. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.
Abide in your Christhood. Abide in the word of God and live, move, and have your being in the prayer that is a benediction and a blessing, not a petition. Let the Christ be. When you feel Its Presence, let that Presence perform Its functions. Don’t “send” It out to do something. Let It do Its work. Loose It and let It go.
In the evening, ask, “Did I practice this today? How well did I do?”
Practice: Live and move and have your being in a consciousness of loving your fellow man.
In living a life of prayer, we live not by bread alone or by money, but by resting and abiding always in the word of truth; by living, moving, and having our being in a consciousness of loving our fellow man, which shows our love for God. We have no way of loving God except to let as much love as possible flow through us to man because man is the only God we know at present.
“That which I am seeking, I am.” God is my being, and the life that is flowing through me is God’s life. So recognize that the forms of love that come through to your fellow man are God’s love manifest. If you feel that you are charitable, honest, spiritual, good, or moral, doubt it. Just “be” without any feeling, and then there is no ego aroused, and no ego functioning. When there is no ego functioning, there is the pure Christ, the pure presence of God, blessing everyone.
We are living the truth and loving our fellow man when we know that God is no respecter of persons; that God is the life, mind, soul, and spirit of individual being; and that even the body is the temple of God. Knowing this truth is loving our fellow man and living by prayer.
In the evening, ask, “Did I practice this today? How well did I do?”
Practice: Know the nature of error.
Error, or evil, is always an impersonal, universal belief in two powers. It is not of God and has no law of God to sustain it. We refer to error as “carnal mind,” “mortal mind,” “devil,” “appearance,” or “claim,” to help us expose its nothingness. Do not malpractice by personalizing error.
The life of prayer knows no fear. We cannot live the life of prayer if we fear some evil power or try to protect ourselves from it. The life of prayer is living in the consciousness that there is only one power; that the word of God is our sustaining influence, our abiding place, our fortress, our high tower, our bread, meat, and wine. If we acknowledge any power other than God, we are not living the life of prayer. The life of prayer is the life of peace, and we cannot be at peace if we have two powers.
Every time the temptation of a power apart from God comes to us, we recognize, “I in the midst of me am mighty.” If there is a temptation to see lack, “I am the bread of life.” If there is a temptation to be sick or fear death, “I am life eternal. I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” This I is our own immortal, divine Being.
In the evening, ask, “Did I practice this today? How well did I do?”
Practice: Recognize the nature of the I that you truly are.
We can only live the life of prayer when we are aware of the I that I really am. God is my being. The life that is flowing through me is God. I am the Son of God, joint heir of God, and the I that I am embodies my good. I need not go to holy mountains or holy temples, because I am the temple in which I am. My very body is the temple of I Am.
The I that I am is my abiding place. The I that I am is my fortress. The I that I am is my bread, my meat, my wine, my clothing, my transportation. The I that I am is my sufficiency in all things. The I that I am is the way. My peace give I unto me. My grace give I unto me.
Therefore, in living the life of prayer, I abide in the Christ which I am. I live, and move, and have my being in prayer, the prayer that is a benediction and a blessing to all who come within range of my consciousness, the prayer of recognition and forgiveness.
I need not fear. Neither life nor death can separate me from the love of God, the life of God, the truth of God, or the presence of God. When fear is completely gone, I am fully and completely enveloped in the life of prayer.
In the evening, ask, “Did I practice this today? How well did I do?”