The answer may not always be the same, but nearly always the question, “Why?” can be answered as follows: Consciously or unconsciously, the questioner is seeking something. This may be the natural thing for the beginner since most of us come to the search for God because of some problem or some lack in our lives. And usually our problem has been solved or our lack met through the consciousness of a dedicated practitioner or teacher.
Did the solution of our problem turn us to the search for the principle of the demonstration, or did it merely send us out seeking more demonstrations? To what extent have our many healings inspired us with either a deep love of God or a craving to know God aright?
There is but one solution to our unsolved problems: the attainment of spiritual realization, the awakening of the Christ-nature within us. Each one of us must eventually embark on the search for the Holy Grail—the awakened consciousness.
There is but one way to world peace, and that is to live by Grace instead of by the sword. But the world cannot live by Grace until individually and collectively it has received inner illumination. Inner light, or Soul-awakening, is attained as we turn from the chase after health, home, and companionship and seek diligently the awareness or revelation of our spiritual nature. Our study, the practice of The Infinite Way principles, and meditation will achieve this for us, and never again will we find it necessary to seek the things of “this world.”
Go back, again and again, to the December 1958, Letter2. Let its spirit fill you. It contains my dream for your attainment. For many years I have had this vision, and nowhere in my writings is it so clearly set forth. When you read this Letter of December, you are glimpsing my vision.
Some of our students who have been with me many years will now understand what I meant when I told them that I know nothing about how to get health or supply. One thing only do I know, and that is that the longing to know God eventually became an inner spiritual experience, and ever since then it has been possible for me to commune within and to receive impartations of Truth, Light, and Grace. Outwardly this has appeared, not only as my health, supply, and companionship, but also as the entire Infinite Way activity.
Another answer to this question of “Why do I not make greater or faster progress?” is that the word “God” too often is a stumbling block. The old theological sense of God persists: We consciously or unconsciously continue to think of God as some super-figure who can and does withhold our good, either for some sin of omission or commission, or because we have not discovered the correct form of prayer, or, even as some people believe, the correct posture or breathing, or we think we are not sufficiently “good.”
Let us begin here with the understanding that we are not seeking God for any reason. Actually, we are not really seeking God, since I and the Father are already one, and our need is only for a realization of this oneness.
In the stillness of our being, there is a transcendental Power, a spiritual Activity, which dissolves the mistakes of mind and body and changes our nature and bodily form and functions. This
transcendental Presence is awakened in us as our spiritual reading, hearing, study, and meditations become a larger part of our daily experience. This transcendental Activity takes over our experience in proportion as we relax from mental thought-taking, as we rest from trying to make something happen by virtue of our thoughts or statements, and as we succeed in being inwardly still.
Since this power and presence of the Spirit is never outside of you or beyond your reach, since it does not have to be struggled for, you will attain it more quickly by knowing that it is already closer than breathing, and then by relaxing and resting in It. You do not need words or thoughts to bring It to your experience. It is already there. Know this, and in the assurance of It, rest and relax.
Look up the word “transcendental” in your dictionary and live with this word, always associating it with your own inner being. You carry this Presence with you wherever you go, and It will govern every phase of your life—as you live It, love It, relax and rest in It. This transcendental Power is what the world of religion calls “God with us,” or the Christ. But It is more than this: It is your spiritual nature, the gift of God in you.
1 Excerpt from The Heart of Mysticism, Volume 6, The 1959 Infinite Way Letters, February 1959 Letter in “Across the Desk.” This excerpt is posted with kind permission from Acropolis Books and from the Estate of Joel S. Goldsmith, which holds the copyright on the books.
2 Now found in The Heart of Mysticism, Volume 5, The 1958 Infinite Way Letters.