A: You see, metaphysics, as a rule, has been used for the purpose of patching up one’s human experience, and so there is very little in the work of devotion to the major purpose of spiritual living, which is the development of spiritual consciousness. Actually outside of mental science, which has only one purpose, which is the demonstration of things and conditions, in a spiritual teaching, the demonstration of things is only incidental to the major point, which is the spiritualizing of consciousness and coming into the awareness of God.
Spiritual wisdom is not something that humans are supposed to use for improving their business or improving their health. Spiritual wisdom is something that is supposed to come into their experience to iron out, to destroy, material consciousness, and to raise up spiritual consciousness, thereby permitting all these things to be added unto one.
Now, as long as metaphysics or truth is merely used for the purposes of getting rid of inharmonies or restoring harmonies, then of course, there will be the periods, no matter how harmonious we get, when the next inharmony will come and disturb us. Whereas, if we can lay aside our problems—oh, just let us say that we are going to devote one year to the search for God, for the seeking of the kingdom of God without any concern about problems—then you would find that a state of consciousness would develop in which harmony would be the natural outpouring of that consciousness, and there would have to be no more periods in between.
You see, ordinarily people will go to a practitioner and they will want some work done for better business, or for selling a house, or buying a house, or finding a house, or for health. Then they will call up on the phone and say, “Oh it was a wonderful demonstration. It’s all finished. Enclosed please find check.” Ah, you would think that they had turned to a practitioner purely to get rid of their fevers, or bad business, or find some property, or sell some property. And actually, that is what is in back of the mind of most of the people who turn to metaphysics. But that is not its purpose. Its purpose is the development of spiritual consciousness.
You can find the proof of that in the greatest teacher we’ve ever had. That’s Jesus Christ. You do not find that he teaches the people merely how to multiply loaves and fishes. He only feeds them twice. In three years of ministry, he only feeds them twice. He heals the multitudes—incidentally. What does he spend most of his time at? Teaching the Golden Rule, teaching the beatitudes, preaching the gospel, and then showing that the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead are merely evidences and proof of the purpose of his mission, which is the spiritualization of consciousness. He says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” So his kingdom doesn’t consist in making demonstrations. His kingdom consists in seeking the kingdom of God, then letting these things be added.
Now when we turn to truth and have a demonstration of harmony—physical, mental, moral, financial—and then just go about our human lives waiting for the next demonstration to be needed, there must come that period in between of discord and harmony that drives us to the next attempt at demonstration. And so the answer to that is this: Don’t neglect the demonstration of harmony that is essential at the moment but make it secondary to the main thing of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And we’ll come to that point a little later.
1 This excerpt is from Recording 105B: 1954 Seattle Closed Class, “Seek Ye the Reality Instead of Forms.” 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.