The basis for this chapter is Recording 486A, titled “Christ Ascended,” from the 1962 Los Angeles Special Class. This recording is no longer available on this site. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. To purchase the recording or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office, click/tap here.
Please note that while the book chapter is essentially a transcript of the class, the content of the transcript may have been re-arranged in some places during the editing process for the chapter. Consequently, if you are following the chapter as you listen to the recording, from time to time you may have to skip ahead or go back in the chapter to find the corresponding text. Even so, overall, the chapter covers virtually everything that is in the recording.
To print or download these study suggestions, click/tap here.
1. In this chapter, Joel emphasizes that we can “lift up” the Christ from the “tomb” of the Holy Land of 2000 years ago and “ascend” Him, or establish that Christ as within ourselves, in the now. Once this Christ is raised up in us, It can perform the functions for which It is ordained—forgiving, healing, comforting, and bringing peace, harmony, and “life more abundant.” Joel says that paying lip service to the Christ or simply affirming Its presence is not enough to raise up the Christ from time and space and realize It as an activity of your consciousness. We must do that through meditation:
“It takes a great deal of silent meditation, even a silent wrangling with our own former beliefs, until we reach that place within our consciousness where we can sit in quietness and in confidence and be assured: ‘The kingdom of God is where I am. Omnipresence means that God is where I am, here, within range of my own consciousness.’ …
“This is the reason the path of the Infinite Way calls for so many periods of meditation—short ones, just long enough to raise up the son of God in us, so that we have, not only the possibility, but the constant experience of inner communion. Then we can commune at will with the son of God, driving our car, doing housework, at business. The son of God is not confined to time or space: we can commune at any time that we can go within.”
Joel has said that every hour of the day, we should be giving ten seconds to a conscious remembrance of truth. For most people, that would be at least fifteen or sixteen times a day. As we study this chapter, it is a good time to look at how we are doing on that score. Is there room for improvement? If so, what are some ways to create reminders?
2. We are all aware that meditation bears more spiritual fruitage than mental activity does. So focusing on doing more short meditations to realize the presence of the Christ is an excellent way to gain a deeper understanding of this chapter. However, if you are new to the message of The Infinite Way and are not very familiar with Joel’s teaching on the Christ, you might benefit from hearing one of his best classes on that topic. It is Recording 145B, from the 1956 First Steinway Hall Closed Class, titled simply “The Christ.” This class was used as source material for Chapter 12, “The One Great Miracle,” in The Heart of Mysticism: Volume 5, The 1958 Letters. The recording is no longer available on this site. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. To purchase the recording or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office, click/tap here.