A: Well, don’t be concerned about that because, in the early stages of most of us, that is exactly what we are seeking or believe we are seeking. And it is only after we get it that we discover that it isn’t what it seems like, and we are kind of disappointed. And it’s then that we say, “Well, now let’s try the next step.”
Above all things, indulge no self-condemnation, and even if you think it’s more honest to declare that you are seeking loaves and fishes, at least continue to seek the loaves and fishes with the idea that you’re not going to find them if you don’t find God. Do not indulge judgment or criticism or self-condemnation, because if you do, you’ll find yourself indulging it when it comes to others. And that’s kind of unforgivable because every one of us is struggling to do our best. We may not all be succeeding according to your light. I may not be doing this work according to your light, but of this you may be assured, I’m doing it to the highest of my light, and I can’t do it any other way.
In the same way, I have learned in my years that everyone who comes to me is doing the very best they can according to their light, and I can’t expect anything more of them until they increase in light. As they increase in light, they will do better. And so it is that when they come to me, they are not coming for judgment and criticism. They’re coming acknowledging that they have not yet received the full light, and therefore, it is my function to help them toward the light, and not to judge or criticize. But I’ll never get there if I’m still indulging in self-judgment.
You can see how, before you leave home in the morning, whether for business, or shopping, or marketing, or whatever it may be, that unless you do some of this contemplative meditation, you will be walking out into a physical universe where they have a very deadly law: two objects can’t be in the same place at the same time. And do you know that there are always six, eight, or ten objects trying to be in the same place at the same time? They tell me you have that amply demonstrated on the freeways here. And I know it’s on the street. You find two or three or four people trying to occupy the same space at the same time. And so, when you go out into that kind of world, that’s the world that meets you. Whereas, if you take a few minutes for this contemplative meditation and realize:
I am in the world, but not of it. I am in the world, but not of it. I am not subject to its material and mental laws. I am under the grace of God. I and my Father are one, and wherever I go, the Father goes, and where the Father goes, I am, for we are one. I am not living in a city or a state. I am living and moving and having my being in God-consciousness. I dwell in the secret place of the Most High. I abide under the shadow of the Almighty, for I and the Father are one, and I cannot escape from God.
And then, when you leave your home, do you not see that you have had your mind stayed on God, and you’ll be brought through in peace?
As you go out to business contacts, there’s only one right way for a truth student, and that is to realize you are not going out to meet man whose breath is in his nostrils, nor are you going out to transact material business:
I’m in the world, but not of it. I live in a spiritual kingdom, and it’s peopled the with children of God. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Therefore, God is the only activity of business. God is the only actor in business. God is the only intelligence in business. God is the only love in business. God is the only mind and spirit in business. In fact, God’s will is the only will in business, and it’s God’s will that is done. Thy grace will be my sufficiency. Not man, whose breath is in his nostrils. I’m not going out to get the favor of princes, but I’m going out knowing that God governs all business. God is the activity of this business, so I’m interested only in spiritual business, even though I know it will be made evident in terms of human merchandise, physical merchandise.
So every step of the day, contemplative meditation is necessary. Before retiring at night, it is especially necessary because otherwise, we would go to sleep as human beings, which just means going into unconsciousness. Now we have no right really to sleep in unconsciousness. Sleep becomes a mild form of death that way, and it has no benefits for anyone except their physical rest. It provides even very little of mental rest.
To go to sleep at night in the Spirit means that all the functioning of God is going on while you’re sleeping, and that includes instruction. That includes guidance for business. That includes abilities, art, literature, whatever it may be—music—this all unfolds in consciousness even while you’re asleep. We should never lose those four, five, six, seven hours at night in death or unconsciousness. Those hours should be productive of good, so that when we awaken in the morning, we are not only physically and mentally refreshed, but we have a whole storehouse of new ideas to go out with.
This idea of sleeping in death, of just being unconscious, cheats us. If God has given us twenty-four hours a day, he has given us twenty-four hours a day of Himself, and we have no right to lose any part of God. And I love to receive the impartations of God at night just as well as in the day, and sometimes I’m better able to receive them because there is nothing else on my mind. The atmosphere outside is more quiet than in the daytime, and I can be more alert, and then as I go to sleep with my consciousness open-ended and attuned to hearing the voice, well, I have found that I have written many, many marvelous things during the night—jumped up out of bed and gotten pen and paper. Nearly all of The Infinite Way came that way, by being awakened at night and having to jump up and write these notes down which became The Infinite Way, and so many others that I haven’t been able to keep count of.
Why not? God does not stop functioning at any hour of the day or night, and God is available to anyone who will attune themselves to God at any hour of the day or night, and we have no right to turn off that station or tune ourselves out. And if this is a new idea to you, try it. When you go to bed at night, have a few minutes of meditation. When you get into bed, turn your thoughts inward and realize:
God in the midst of me is just as much awake at night as in the day. God in the midst of me is imparting to me at night as well as in the day. God in the midst of me never sleeps, never slumbers. God in the midst of me is my very being all night through.
And then you will find that instead of tuning yourself out from God, you’ve tuned into God, and all that God is doing for you during the day is kept on right through the night.
1This copyrighted excerpt is from Recording 303A: 1960 Los Angeles Closed Class, “Meditations.” It is posted with kind permission from the Estate of Joel Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on the recorded classes and the copyright on the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available from The Infinite Way website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
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