A: And here’s how, and I will refer you to that chapter “Love Thy Neighbor” in Practicing the Presence. It’s both in the old and the new. It says in there that if I wrong you, since there is only one Self, or one I, whom am I wronging? Who am I wronging? Myself, because there’s only one Self and I am that Self. If I benefit you, who am I benefiting? Myself—certainly. And then I take you to the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew:
“When I was in prison ye comforted me, you visited me. When I was sick, ye comforted me. When I was an hungered, ye fed me. When I was naked, ye clothed me. Master, when saw we thee in prison and visited thee? When saw we thee an hungered and fed thee? When saw we thee sick?” And so forth. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
“When I was in prison, ye did not visit me. When I was an hungered, ye did not feed me. When I was sick, ye did not”—and so forth and so on. “Master, when saw we thee in prison and did not visit thee? When saw we thee an hungered and did not feed thee? Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have not done it unto me.”
Now Christ, the Son of God, is my true selfhood. But that would be a horrible statement except for the recognition that Christ, the Son of God, is your true selfhood. Therefore, my selfhood and your selfhood is one Selfhood. I am in you, and you are in me, and we are in God.
Now, every time I move a dollar bill from my pocketbook to yours, I’m transferring it from one pocket of mine into another of mine, for we are one Self, one Being, one household. Every time I deprive you in any way, shape, manner, or form of one single penny, I am robbing myself. It may take me a week, a month, or a year to find that out, but eventually, I will find that every cent that I have obtained by deceit I have stolen from my own pocket, and it will be missing for a long, long time. Therefore, in this chapter it is revealed that the way of maintaining human relationships spiritually is to act always from the standpoint that I am you, and then only do unto you as I would be done by, by you.
When the Master taught—and this had been taught, you know, for at least fifteen hundred years before him—”Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” he wasn’t giving advice. He was stating a law that you really had better do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or else. For in doing unto others, you are doing unto yourself, and when you have fed others, you have fed yourself. When you have comforted others, you have comforted yourself. When you have healed others, you have healed yourself, for there is but one Self, and I am He. I am That.
That’s the solution to every human problem. If we in this room could accept that, we would be living the life that the churches hope [their] people will be living by obeying the Ten Commandments. But we won’t have ten commandments. We won’t even have one! We will just have a mystical revelation that I am He. I am. But I am, whether I am Joel, or whether I am Bill or Mary. I am still He. I am that I AM, even that I AM sitting over there. And so I have to learn to conduct myself as if I were the I of you, and then be sure that I do unto you as I would do unto myself, for you are myself.
Now I know this, not from reading about it. I know it from having had this experience since 1928, occurring over and over again—one of those experiences in, I think, the Letters of 1955. But I don’t write of them too often or speak of them too often, because it lends itself sometimes to people imagining that they’re making a demonstration which they are not yet making. The wish becomes father to the thought, and so it is better for each one to attain the realization of their own accord, so as to be sure that they’re not acting from suggestion.
But there is an exception in this class, because it seems that this class will be a class on mysticism or the mystical way of life, so it evidently must come out. And some of you know how many times I’ve said that I prayed for the day when we would be able to have a class where we could teach healing without mental argument. And you see, this is it. Because if I am you, I don’t have to treat you, and I don’t have to give you a treatment. I only have to know the truth about I, for the truth about I is the truth about I-you, as well as I-me, and the deeper your realization of this truth, the less you will have to project your thought out to a patient or a student. Now you will begin to understand why throughout the writings, it says that I have never given a treatment to anybody, nor have I ever treated a disease. All treatment takes place within me, and the treatment is about God and spiritual creation and spiritual law.
I only know the truth about God, about spiritual being, spiritual law, spiritual cause, spiritual activity, and never, never, never in my life has my thought gone out to a person called a patient or student, or to a condition from which they were suffering. Never, never, never! When I close my eyes, I’m alone with God, and I’m communing with God, and I’m knowing the truth about God, for the truth that I know about God is the truth about you, for I and the Father are one, and that’s a universal relationship. I and the Father are one—that includes you.
Now, there’s no thought transferred from me to you. There is no “you” that comes into my thought, and do you know why? Because the only “you” that I could be thinking about that has a name isn’t you at all. It’s a concept of you, and no matter what I would do to that concept of you, it would have nothing to do with you. I read that today in Consciousness Unfolding—that if I had a photograph of you, and I didn’t like it; I didn’t like your looks; I could make it very pretty with a little paint. But after I did, I would not have changed you one bit. So it is.
What I might have in my mind about you represents either my concept of you, or the world’s concept of you, certainly the accepted concept of you that I’m entertaining, and why do I want to change that, or improve it, or do anything to it? It’s of no value. But the you that is You is I Am, and so all the truth that I must know is the truth about I Am, and all the truth about I Am is the truth about you. How, then, do you benefit and not someone else out on the street? You have brought yourself into union with me by asking for help. You’re reaching out to me, whether you’re doing it inside your own mind, whether you’re sending a telegram, a letter, a telephone call, or whether you’re coming to my office in person. It’s all the same thing. You’ve brought yourself to me. Coming to me corporeally, physically, doesn’t make you any closer to me than if you were ten thousand miles away from me, for the you that You are is omnipresent in my consciousness, even if you live in Africa.
1This excerpt is from Recording 208B: 1958 First Chicago Closed Class, “Mysticism.” 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.