A: No, mental activity is a reasoning and a thinking activity. Consciousness is not a mental activity; consciousness does not reason or think: It is just aware.
Two times two is four. God, infinite Consciousness, does not use a mental process in arriving at that answer. It is just a state of is. There has never been a time when it was other than that, nor was there ever a time in creation when two times two became four. There is no process of making two times two, four, and, therefore, no mental activity is necessary to establish that fact. Two times two has always existed as four, and the only mental activity involved in that concept is the activity of awareness.
When I stated that we do not work on the mental plane, what I meant was that the only activity of the mind is one of awareness. We become aware that we are spiritual, that we are divine being, that sin, disease, and death are illusions—just nothingness, or mesmeric suggestion—but we do not go through any mental process to make this so.
We do not indulge in any kind of a mental process with the idea of making a sick man well or a poor man rich or an unemployed man employed. If there is any process at all, it is the process of awareness, the process of becoming aware of that which already divinely is, and that is not a mental process.
From the human standpoint, we cannot look at a sick person and mentally assert, “You are well.” That is hypocrisy and ignorance and is obviously untrue. It is only with inner spiritual discernment that we can look through the human appearance and see the divine reality which underlies that appearance. So it is not through a mental process that we become aware of perfection, and our work is to become aware of perfection. It cannot be done humanly with the human mind because nothing that the human mind will ever know will be perfect. It is only when the human mind is not at work, when in the very stillness of our innermost being, our Soul-senses and spiritual awareness are aroused, that we behold the perfect man.
That is why spiritual healing is not a mental process. None of your or my thinking will add health to you or to me. Again we go back to Jesus: “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”2 “Who by taking thought can make one hair white or black?”3 “Take no thought for your life. . . .”4 In other words, a mental process has nothing to do with spiritual truth, and that is really the crux of this whole presentation of truth. Human mental activity has nothing whatsoever to do with this particular approach. No amount of knowing the truth will help you—–no amount of declaring the truth. No human mental process enters into this presentation.
The Infinite Way is concerned first and foremost with the development of the Soul-sense. When we are still, sitting back with that “listening ear,” when we are in meditation, giving what we call a treatment, the inner Thing comes to life and shows us the inward spiritual perfection, and that outwardly becomes interpreted as a healthy, sane, or wealthy human being.
Right there is the meat and the substance of the whole Infinite Way. We do not indulge in any mental processes for self-improvement, and that is where we depart from the entire metaphysical field. It is a question of developing our spiritual sense so that ultimately we arrive at the consciousness of a Jesus Christ who could look at the cripple and say, “Rise up and walk!”5
What do you think would enable a man to say that? Do you think any mental process anyone could use would instantaneously raise up a crippled man so he could walk? No, only the divine Fire within, only the very Spirit of God could do that.
It might be possible to give a person a year’s treatment and gradually turn him from a cripple into a healthy man by mental manipulation—by a pounding and pounding and pounding away at him mentally. But no human being could instantaneously do that—only the fire of God in him.
That is why we must make love the dominating influence in our experience. All the divine qualities of the Christ must become active in us; all personal desires—all hate, envy, criticism, and condemnation—must be relinquished. There can be no indulgence in those human qualities. We must not fear them, for we are then missing the opportunity to bring forth the divine qualities of the Christ. Why should we go around indulging in these human things at the expense of cheating ourselves of having that mind that was in Christ Jesus?
The mind that was in Christ Jesus does not engage in any reasoning or thinking process. To the palsied man it says, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk,” and might have added, “What is to hinder you? Is there any power apart from God?” This mind of Christ Jesus is awareness without a process.
The truth is that there is no power apart from God, but we could say it and say it and say it, and nothing would happen. In fact, a metaphysical teacher may sit and talk these truths from now until doomsday and not bring out any measure of spirituality in his class; or a clergyman may preach spellbinding sermons and yet the members of his congregation go on being the same kind of human beings year in and year out, with just as many ills, just as many crimes, just as much cheating in business, just as much corruption in politics. Why are not the congregations in these churches and centers improved spiritually? For the simple reason that they are sometimes hearing only an intellectual presentation of truth, and even though many times this comes from a very good human being, if that person has not a developed Christ-consciousness, or spiritual sense, he cannot quicken the minds and hearts of his followers.
What is most important is not to criticize the human faults, but rather to lift people up to the place where they are not human any more. You cannot do that by means of human reason. You can tell a person not to steal; you can tell a person not to lie or cheat; you can tell him anything you want to tell him, and many of you probably have, but usually it has not and does not have any effect upon his conduct.
Improved conduct is only brought about by reaching the individual through the Spirit. You must attain such a degree of spirituality that when a sinner is touched by your consciousness, he loses all desire to sin. When that happens, you are functioning as a spiritual teacher. You are then not teaching new truths and new mental processes: You are giving forth the age-old truth that has been tried and found effective—effective by Elisha, Elijah, and Isaiah, by Jesus and John.
Truth is so simple that it can all be summed up in less than one thousand words, but it is only through developing our own spiritual qualities that spirituality can be brought out in those we meet.
1 Excerpt from Chapter 8, “Questions and Answers,” inConscious Union with God. This excerpt is posted with kind permission from Acropolis Books (www.acropolisbooks.com), the publisher of most of Joel’s books.
2 Matthew 6:27
3 Matthew 5:36
4 Matthew 6:25
5 John 5:8