This recording was used as source material for Chapter 8, “The Mystical I,” and Chapter 12, “The Discovery of the Self” in A Parenthesis in Eternity, and for Chapter 3, “Giving Our Gift at the Altar,” in The Altitude of Prayer.
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We always encourage you to write your own summary of the class, because each individual will select the points most important to him or her. However, if it is helpful to you as a quick review, you are welcome to use this summary.
The spiritual way of life is not complicated. It means continuing in your household, your business, your art, or your profession, but changing its base from the materialistic or atheistic concept of life to a search for and an ultimate discovery of that which is called “the kingdom of God within you.”
The kingdom of God can only be found within you, and this simplifies things. You do not have to go anywhere because the search is conducted within yourself. But what does “within yourself” or “within you” mean? It does not mean in the physical body. Then where are you to search? You cannot begin your search for the kingdom of God until you understand who, what, and where you are. So you must ask, “Who am I? What am I? Where am I?”
You are not in your physical body; you are something other than body. You are incorporeal, invisible, and spiritual. The nature of your life is that of consciousness, awareness. When you understand that about yourself, you begin to understand why the kingdom of God is within you. It is within your consciousness, within your awareness, within your being.
You have made a huge stride into spiritual living when you have lifted yourself, your identity, out of your body and can look at your physical body in a mirror and say, “Thank God, I know that I’m not there. That isn’t me. That is my body. I am invisible.” Then you can begin to understand Jesus’ teaching: “Call no man on earth your Father, for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” If God is your Father, and you are the Son of God, you must be spiritual being, spiritual entity, spiritual identity, incorporeal being, invisible being. As the Son of God, invisible Being, you are never seen by anybody. Your physical body is visible, but you are invisible to human sight because you are hid with the Father, hid with Christ in God.
I am not inside this physical form. I am that which governs this form. I move around by means of this form, and I am humanly identified by this form, but I am not this form. I am spiritual being. I am in the bosom of the Father, and I and the Father are one, not two. That one is my spiritual identity, my divine Sonship, the one that was never born and can never die. So in discovering my Self, I find the God with which I am one—one life, one love, one substance, one Being.
When you come to this realization of oneness, you can understand what the Master revealed when he said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” The One cannot be divided.
Once you recognize your oneness with God, you are ready for the great revelation: “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” Then you begin to draw on a Source that heretofore has been closed to you. You stop looking at your pocketbook or bank account to see how much money you have. You stop thinking in terms of where your supply will come from. You realize that you are heir of God, and this advances you in the spiritual way of life. As you become accustomed to the idea that “I and my Father are one, and all that the Father has is mine;” that I am heir to all the heavenly riches; and that all the heavenly riches are already within me, you realize that you have only one thing to do: “Abide in the Word and let this Word abide in you. Pray without ceasing.” Then you have access to your spiritual Source, to Infinity.
Realizing the truth of true identity requires a transition in consciousness. It takes a while to make this transition, and the stickler is that word “I.” At first when you say “I,” you think of that figure in the mirror. You must train yourself away from that, realizing that you are not anywhere in the physical body. You are spiritual and incorporeal. You are consciousness. You are Life, and you are hid in God. You live, move, and have your being in the secret place of the Most High.
We read in Scripture, “I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.” Do you realize that the “I” that you so foolishly say is weak, old, or sick, is the I that has come that you might have life and have it more abundantly? All you have to do is live in that I and stop looking to forms. Instead of looking to your pocketbook, your job, your art, your profession, or your husband, wife, parent, or child, look constantly unto this I. Look to this I that you could not find in your body, the I that is hid with Christ in God, the I that has come that you might have life and have it more abundantly, the I that is one with God. This I is the bread of life, the meat, the wine, and the water. When you can do this, you have begun the spiritual life.
At first, when you separate yourself from your physical body and realize that you exist as I, and not as a physical body, you are a mystery to yourself. You ask, “Who am I? Where am I? Why am I?” As you begin to ponder those questions, you are in contemplation, in meditation, in communion with the Source that is within you. In other words, the search is taking place within you. You are not talking to a man, whose breath is in his nostrils. You are not discussing truth with anybody. You are going to the secret place of the Most High within yourself and contemplating truth within your own consciousness. You are discovering your identity, your abiding place in God, your oneness with your Source, and the infinite nature of your Source.
So the search for God is the discovery of one’s Self, the discovery of one’s own identity. You cannot truthfully say that you are far along on the spiritual path until you have begun to realize the nature of your identity, of your being; until you have begun to realize that you are not a material being or body; that you are not finite; that you are not limited in time or space.
The discovery of our identity is the beginning of the spiritual path. As you progress, eventually you hear a still small voice that says, “Be still and know that I am God.” At that point, life becomes a resting, a relaxing in the Spirit. You live without taking thought—not without thinking, but without taking anxious thought, without care, without disturbance.
In several of his classes, Joel leads students in what he calls “the body exercise.” The point of the exercise is to help us recognize our true identity. In recording 468A, which we heard in our sessions, Joel briefly refers to this body exercise, saying:
It probably will not surprise you to know that you are not in your body. This you must already know because surgery has been conducted to such an extent in most countries that if you were anywhere within your body, some surgeon would have discovered you. But no surgeon has ever discovered you through surgery. No surgeon has ever found you inside of your body. And there’s a good reason: You aren’t there. You are not confined to your body, and you could establish this for yourself within two or three moments.
You might this very moment, look down at your feet, and ask yourself if you are down there. And I’m sure you’ve gotten a very quick response: ‘Heavens no! Don’t look for me down in my feet! And so quickly go up to your knees and up to your waist and up to your chest and up to your throat, and on up to the very tiptop of your head and ask yourself if you are there. And the answer will come back just as quickly, “No. Don’t look for me in my feet or in my stomach or in my spinal cord or in my head, for I am not there.” . . .
Where am I? It doesn’t make any difference where you are at this moment, if you have discovered where you are not. If you have discovered that you are not in your body, you have made a tremendous step forward on the spiritual path.
If you have never done the body exercise or if you want to review it, we have excerpted an extended version for you to hear. This excerpt is from Recording 59A, from the 1954 Chicago Practitioner Class, titled “My Identity—Body—Communion.” To listen here, use the player below. To listen by telephone, call 1-641-715-3900 and enter 767432#.
In this class, Joel tells us that contemplating questions and Scripture can help us discover our Self, our true identity. Here are some of the questions and Scripture verses for contemplation that Joel suggests:
Joel points out that as you ponder these, you are in contemplation, in meditation, in communion with the Source that is within you. You are working within yourself, not talking to others or discussing truth with them. You are going to the secret place of the Most High within yourself and contemplating truth within your own consciousness.
So when insights or realizations come to you, it can be helpful to write them down. Sometimes as you write, additional insights, refinements, and realizations begin to pour through.