No source recording for this chapter is listed in The Compendium. However, the recording we have chosen is an excellent fit for the chapter. It is recording 314B, from the 1960 Denver Closed Class, titled “Foundation of Our Day,” and is one of several classes used as the basis for Chapter 10, “Dominion through Daily Realization,” in Awakening Mystical Consciousness. This recording was posted through November 25, 2023, 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.
To download or print these study suggestions, click/tap here.
The previous study chapter, “God Is One,” in Living The Infinite Way leads us directly into this chapter on protective work, because the oneness of God is the basis for protective work. Joel teaches that “protection” is the acceptance of and establishment in the absolute perfection and harmony of IS. The chapter also links directly to “The New Horizon,” in The Infinite Way, especially to the first sentence in that chapter: “THE SENSE which presents pictures of discord and inharmony, disease and death, is the universal mesmerism which produces the entire dream of human existence.”
What Joel Said about This Chapter
In the recording that we used as an introduction to this study series (453A), Joel said:
“In the chapters ‘Protection’ in the 1955 Infinite Way Letters and ‘The New Horizon’ in The Infinite Way, you will find the principle of one power, the principle of impersonalization, nothingization, and probably healing work, the healing ministry, so far as it applies to physical and mental disorders.
“In addition to this, in the chapter ‘Protection,’ there is a point that is even more valuable than a healing principle, because the major part of that chapter deals with how to prevent the conditions that later need to be healed. Let me explain that at this point. Anything that befalls us of a negative character, whether illness, accident, loss, discord in human relationships—anything of that nature takes place only in the degree that we have not learned the principle of protective work. In other words, we do not have to become sick; we do not have to have family problems or employer/employee problems; we do not have to have accidents. There is no law decreeing these; there is no God decreeing these and certainly no devil.
“Therefore, be assured that when they happen to us, it represents our ignorance—yours individually, mine when it happens to me, our ignorance of how to prevent it, because all discords are preventable. None need happen to the student on the spiritual path. ‘A thousand may fall at your left, ten thousand at your right; it cannot come nigh your dwelling place’—if you know the principle of prevention, and that principle is so clearly stated in this chapter ‘Protection,’ which came to me as an unfoldment early one morning in my hotel room. I jumped out of bed and up to the desk, and this thing wrote itself, probably because for years before, I was virtually practicing that without ever having written it, but now it just came out in full form.
“Of course, the source of our difficulties is a universal belief in two powers, and if we get up in the morning and go out about our business without having our five-minute or ten-minute period of protective work, we’re just walking out into whatever circumstances and conditions may send us. We must start out every day in the realization:
“This is the day the Lord hath made. This is God’s day; God made this day; God governs this day; God is the law unto this day, and because God is infinite and omnipotent, there are no evil powers. There are no evil laws or destructive laws. There are no material and mental laws in the presence of God. In Thy presence is fulfillment—fulfillment of harmony, of peace, and Thy presence is here where I am, for Thou art Omnipresence. If I mount up to heaven, I’m in the presence of God. If I make my bed in hell, I’m in the presence of God. If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I am in the presence of God, because God is Omnipresence and God is Omnipotence. Therefore, there are no powers to operate against God or His son, which I am.
“It only takes a few minutes every day of that clear realization of God as Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience. Then we can say,
‘His presence goes before me to make the crooked places straight. He goes before me to prepare mansions. I live and move and have my being in this day—His day, God’s day, a spiritual day. I live and move and have my being under the grace of God, beside which there is no power.’
“Well, you see, that type of work changes your entire day. It changes your relationship to everything and everyone with whom you come into contact. And so it is that between these two chapters, ‘The New Horizon’ in The Infinite Way and ‘Protection’ in the 1955 Infinite Way Letters, you really have the basis of changing your entire lives.”
Reminder: The chapter “Protection” is also available as a pamphlet from Amazon or from Joel Goldsmith Books.
Key Points in the Chapter
This chapter is an Infinite Way Monthly Letter, and Joel constantly urged students not only to read the Monthly Letter, but to study it, “pick out the pearls,” and apply them to daily life.
Every individual has a unique way of studying. One that works well for us is to choose passages from a chapter that capture the key points that speak to us. It is helpful to highlight or annotate these passages in the book, of course, but to really study the passages, we have found that it can be quite effective to put each key passage on a separate card. Isolating the key passage in this way and considering it apart from the surrounding text in the book seems to support a more concentrated focus.
As you know, Joel recommends that dozens of times a day, we stop for a “ten-second” or “two-minute” meditation. If you keep the cards in convenient places at home or in your workspace, they will be readily available to use as the basis of one of these short contemplations. In this very chapter, Joel encourages us to do this, saying, “It would be a wonderful thing if students would take this subject of protection into daily meditation for the next month or two.”
The key passages that we are sharing are from the first section of the chapter “Protection,” which focuses on protective work. Should you wish to experiment with using them, we have provided them in two formats:
If you like this method, you can try it with the other sections in this chapter, identifying the passages that speak to you and putting them on cards.
Do You Have “Buts”?
This chapter shines a light on all four major Infinite Way principles: the nature of God, the nature of individual being, the nature of error, and the nature of prayer.
For many people, the nature of error is the most challenging principle. We may deeply resonate with Joel’s words: “God alone is, and God’s Presence is infinite. There is no other power; there is no other Presence; there is no destructive or harmful influence in any person, place or thing; there is no evil in any condition.”
But for most of us, there are certain types of appearances that we find extremely difficult to handle, and these might tempt us to say, “Well yes, I agree, BUT . . .what about this?” Maybe this happens with a threatening economic trend, an apparently dangerous political situation, or a severe weather event. Perhaps it happens when you or a loved one apparently experiences a physical discord. Maybe you are tempted to battle an appearance of aging, or lack, or limitation of some sort. Almost everyone has vulnerable spots.
It can be helpful to look at these situations and ask:
What has Joel suggested that we do with challenging appearances? For one thing, as he said on the recording that we heard for this chapter, if we make it a habit to do protective work each morning, we will be far better prepared to meet these appearances. Also, he tells us to go back to the principles, re-establish them in our consciousness, and stand fast in them. Then, after we have recalled the principles, we LISTEN WITHIN. For example, we might say, “Isaiah has said that You, the true I of my being, are the ‘Counsellor.’ I am having trouble seeing through this appearance, so I am listening for Your voice, for Your counsel.” And then, be still.
It can be helpful to ask yourself how a master—Jesus, Buddha, Joel, or someone else whom you consider to be a highly evolved spiritual master—would handle the situation. Can you do likewise? If not, perhaps you can contemplate how they came to their illumined consciousness. Are you following a similar path to illumination?
One other possibility is to ask yourself this question: “If someone came to me asking for help with handling one of these temptations that is a hot button for me, what would I tell them?”
Introspection like this can be very helpful, because the next time we are up against that form of appearance, we are better prepared to handle it.
Helpful Suggestions from a Previous Study Program
The recording we are using for this chapter “Protection” is one of several classes used as the basis for Chapter 10, “Dominion through Daily Realization,” in Awakening Mystical Consciousness, which was our previous study book. That chapter focused on protective work too, as did the optional study suggestions for that chapter. If you did not have a chance to review those study suggestions, which include a comprehensive collection of quotations from Joel about protective work, you might enjoy reviewing them now. To review the collection of quotations about protective work, click/tap here.
