Recording 492B, “Attuning Ourselves to Our Christhood,” was not used as source material for any book.
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Previous Sessions in The 1962 Manchester Closed Class
In the first session of the 1962 Manchester Closed Class, “The World Is New,” Joel taught that to bring the Christ into our experience, we must consciously open our consciousness, seeking only to have the Christ “enter in,” or seeking to consciously realize the Christ that already indwells us and is our true identity.
In the second session, “The New Man,” Joel taught that there is only one true God, and Its name is “I Am.” That “I Am” dwells in every individual as the Christ. But to come into the full consciousness of God as “I Am” and be reborn as the “new man,” the Christ, we must die to our human, mortal sense of self.
In the third session, “Infinite Way Healing Work,” Joel carried forward the theme of realizing the “I Am” through the lens of healing work. He taught that we develop a healing Christ consciousness through the constant practice of two principles: first, there is only one power, and second, all evil is impersonal.
Having led us to a heightened awareness of the Christ within, in this session, titled “Attuning Ourselves to Our Christhood,” Joel teaches the spiritual practices that enable us to be in conscious attunement with our Christhood, so that It shows forth in our daily lives.
Interesting Note About This Class
At the beginning of the class, Joel corrects something he said in the previous session about making an exception to non-resistance in the case of “spiritual wickedness in high places.” His correction was that no student on the spiritual path should use the whip or force under any circumstances. Such a response would show that the student had not yet fully developed the consciousness of non-resistance.
Joel goes on to dispel any misunderstanding that he might have been saying that Jesus did not have the realized consciousness of non-resistance when he drove the money changers from the temple. He explains that he believes the story was the way the Master taught about overcoming human tendencies, habits, and weaknesses of the flesh in ourselves, so that we can enter the spiritual consciousness.
It’s helpful to observe that when Joel recognized something he said was incorrect or could be misunderstood, he openly corrected it. This reflects his integrity and reminds us that we have a responsibility not to accept something blindly, even if it comes from Joel. If something doesn’t sit right with us, we can take it into contemplation to see what is revealed from within ourselves, or we can seek insight from a teacher or fellow student. Joel consistently emphasized that students should feel free to question and be guided by the truth that unfolds within themselves.
Some Key Points from the Class
Joel says, “In the degree that we bring ourselves into attunement with our Christ Self, the whole world will feel the influence of it and be drawn to it.” But how do we bring ourselves into attunement with our Christhood?
Overcoming temptations
One way to attune to our Christhood is to know how to overcome temptations. There are no external evils to overcome. Any evil we experience is not “out there,” but if we are in ignorance of this truth, we try to overcome it out there, when the overcoming has to be within us.
The Master met the three temptations within himself. No one outside himself was tempting him, and no one outside yourself is tempting you. If you are tempted, something in your nature wants what is tempting you. You may not consciously want it, but somewhere inside you, something does, and it is tempting you.
So, the temptation is never external to us. It is within us, and we must overcome it within ourselves. We must declare, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” to the ”Satan” within tempting us. There are no external Satans and never have been. The only devil there is, is that “tempter” within us. The temptation may appear as an external form, but the tempter and the temptation lie within us. Once you begin to see this, you no longer battle external appearances but turn within to divest yourself of the universal beliefs you have unconsciously accepted that are at the root of the temptation.
Joel gives an example of a common temptation—misunderstanding in relationships. We may feel that a family member, an employer, or a partner doesn’t understand us. But Joel turns this around, pointing out that the real misunderstanding is within us. It is we who do not understand them, and we are apt to pin labels on them that contradict the truth that God constitutes individual being. If we see faults in another or believe they fall short in some way, we do not yet know what it means to be a child of God. If we did, we would see them as perfect, as heirs, joint heirs with Christ in God, who have the life, mind, will, soul, and being of God. We would recognize their perfection, even if it is not yet evident. So it is our responsibility to correct our erroneous concept.
When we can look upon this world and realize that Christ is the true nature of every individual, and we can behold that Christ in bus drivers, servers, hotel and airline personnel, and anyone else, recognizing their true identity regardless of the human appearance, the world gives back to us in kind. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
This is one way to attune to our Christhood—recognizing that temptations come from within and meeting them within by knowing the truth.
Q: Is there some temptation that comes to me often? What truth would help me meet that temptation?
Recognizing the infinite nature of the Christ Self
Another way to attune to our Christhood is to acknowledge the infinite nature of our being.
Joel turns to the example of supply and points out that we have looked upon supply as something that comes to us. We haven’t got it; it’s out there, and we have to get it. So, we must work for it, and if we don’t get it by working for it, we might use other means.
But here again, supply is not out there. Supply is within us: “I have meat the world knows not of.” I embody all supply within me, and when we recognize this and stop fighting for it, our supply begins to open up in a natural way. It might be a new way or one that has been previously untapped.
So if we are on the spiritual path, working to attune to our Christhood, we perform the activities and functions of our daily life—our business, profession, art, or whatever—to the highest standard of which we are capable. But we must not believe that our supply comes from our work. We must understand that we embody our supply, an infinite storehouse of supply, always with twelve baskets full left over to share with others.
When we perceive this, we don’t see supply as something out there that we are waiting for. We start with what we have on hand. We understand that we must share with those who do not yet know the secret of supply, and we make some provision from what we have for benevolent purposes. We take something from what we have, recognizing the source as God, and out of gratitude to God, we share secretly in some impersonal way.
This is another way to attune to our Christhood—recognizing that we have an infinite storehouse of supply and “beginning to pour” in secret.
Q: How do I think about supply? Have I realized this infinite storehouse within, the infinite nature of my Christhood?
Living by spiritual principles
As Joel has so often said, living by spiritual principles is another way to attune to our Christhood.
There is some part of us that is perfection, which we can call our “Christ Self.” It lets us know when we are acting or thinking in a way that is out of alignment with our Christhood. The higher we go in spiritual living, and the more our Christhood comes into evidence, the more we recognize even minor transgressions and suffer from them. However, by the same token, when we do or think anything that is aligned with our Christhood, we receive the grace of Christhood.
Fruitage comes when we are aligned with a spiritual principle. For example, the Bible says that if we pray or do benevolences to be seen of men, we gain the approval of men, but we lose God. It also says that if we retire into the inner sanctuary of our being to pray or do our benevolences in secret, we gain the grace of God. In other words, when we act in alignment with a principle, the principle works with us. If we work against the principle, it works against us.
The Master’s teachings on living a spiritual life all point to something that takes place within us. We have to come into attunement with our inner selves. Praying in the inner sanctuary, doing benevolences secretly, praying for our enemies, and loving our neighbor as ourselves are all inner activities that do not call for outward display or public action.
When we follow these teachings, we are in attunement with our Christhood, and fruitage flows from that attunement, just as light, heat, or cold flows when electricity is properly connected. Infinite love is the nature of our Christhood, and when we live in attunement with It, infinite affluence must flow forth—physically, mentally, morally, and financially.
Spiritual life is not about pleasing others or obeying rules that someone set forth—not even the Ten Commandments. The secret of spiritual living is living in attunement with our Christ Self.
When we do not live in attunement with our Christ Self, we are sowing to the flesh. But when we follow the teachings of the Master, we are in attunement. All those teachings center on Love with a capital L, not personal love reserved for family, friends, or members of our church, but divine love that recognizes the innate divinity of every individual. This is not about calling bad people good; it is about seeing through both badness and goodness and recognizing their divinity, the Christ of their being, whether or not they are living up to it, and always acting toward them from the awareness of their true being.
If we behold the qualities of God in another, we are practicing the presence of God in them. But if we behold something erroneous in them, we are malpracticing them, and we are out of attunement with our Christ Self. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” and “If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption.” If we judge by appearances, we are sowing to the flesh, but if we judge righteous judgment, we are in attunement, and our Christhood flows out.
If someone does an injury to us, we must not respond with “an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth.” We must not resist evil or seek revenge, but rather “pray for those who despitefully use us.” When we follow this teaching, we are in attunement with our Christ nature, and our Christ nature flows. But if we believe in the need for revenge or punishment, we are violating our Christ nature. There was no punishment in the ministry of the Master.
Our attunement to our Christ Self is our meat, wine, bread, and water. “I have meat,” and my meat is the word of God: “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
So, the mystical life is entirely a life of withinness. We are not changing others so they meet what we think they should be; we are changing ourselves to what Christhood should be. We focus on our own demonstration, on making our human life agree with our Christhood. The Gospels offer profound guidance in this regard, as they present the Master’s teachings on how to live the spiritual life. We should study the Gospels, especially the Sermon on the Mount, so we know what is included.
Q: To what degree am I living by the spiritual principles set forth by the Master? Am I clear on what those principles are?
The silent influence of a life attuned to Christhood
The secret of the Master’s teaching is that we must attune ourselves to our Christhood so that our thoughts and deeds are aligned with our Christhood and we can say, “To the highest of my present ability, I am loving God, whom I have not seen, and I am loving my neighbor, whom I have seen. I see every individual on the face of the globe as my neighbor.”
To some extent, we must help those in need around the world, regardless of whether or not they share our political views, just as we do not ask those to whom we give our benevolences whether they are conservatives, liberals, socialists, or communists. If we see their need, we meet it to the best of our ability. When we help the world, we must not be governed by what their political, religious, or racial affiliations are, but entirely by their needs and the extent to which we can help them. Then we are attuned to our Christhood, and when we are in attunement with our Christhood, we are in attunement with this world, and the world gives back the measure we send forth.
Joel suggests that there is a higher way to help the world than to crusade for causes, and that is to abide in our spiritual identity, recognizing the spiritual identity of all, and eventually bringing about a change of consciousness in the world. He acknowledges that some have not yet attained that realization, and for them, there must still be crusading. But he points out that the world is not won over to spiritual truth by crusades. It is won by an invisible activity that takes place in consciousness. If we abide in the center of our being and, to the best of our ability, attune to our Christhood and then quietly live out from that basis, someone is attracted to us to find out what we have, what our religion or philosophy is. Soon after, others are drawn, too.
In the degree that we bring ourselves into attunement with our Christ Self, the entire world will feel the influence of it and be drawn to it. If we do not live this teaching, there will be no fruitage, for the fruitage lies in the degree to which we are living The Infinite Way and showing it forth—not in words, but in such a high consciousness that it becomes evident to those around us. The whole secret of the spiritual life is “withinness,” and it isn’t about changing the world; it’s about changing ourselves.
Q: What am I doing to bring the influence of the Christ to the world?
The Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is perhaps the most profound guide for living the spiritual life and attuning ourselves to our Christhood. Joel called it “the greatest message ever given to the world.” In 2021, Goldsmith Global offered a study program on the Sermon on the Mount, using Part 3 (Chapters 10 – 19) of The Thunder of Silence. If you want to review any part of that program in connection with your study of our current class, click/tap here.
In the Optional Study Suggestions for Session 8 of that program, we included a document containing the entire Sermon on the Mount (King James Version) formatted to print double-sided on a single page. The page can be folded and becomes a convenient and valuable reference for the teachings that, when followed, help you attune to your Christhood. As we study this class over the next two weeks, it can be helpful to keep the Sermon on the Mount handy and use it to reflect on your progress.
When printing this document, please note:
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Questions to Center Us in Christhood
As we go about our daily lives, facing decisions, responding to others, or navigating challenges, we can bring ourselves into greater attunement with our Christhood by pausing to ask: