Now, most of you already know the answer to that, don’t you? A problem can only exist in mind. But supposing you closed your mind, and you have no thoughts in it. Now where is your problem? There isn’t any, and in place of the problem, the truth, the reality, rushes in to take its place.
Watch this. In the human world, you have two powers, good and evil, and always you are loving, fearing, or hating. Always, you are pushing mentally, either to attract to you or to get rid of, or to rise above, or to overcome. Of course, the longer you keep that up, the longer you’re going to have something. Even if you get rid of one problem, two are going to come in and take its place. What was it the Master said about that? Be careful, you know, about getting rid of this problem; seven more might come in.2 And so it is, if you force a problem out of your mind by will power, you’re apt to have two take its place—or more.
But now let us take this attitude. Here has come to me a terrible problem. I don’t know what its nature is, but it’s awful—awful! I can’t go through with it. And instead of being in this world and fighting it, you’re to sit here and acknowledge, “That’s the way it seems, Father. Oh yes, terrible, terrible, terrible. That’s the way it seems. Now what is it?”
Now you see, I’m not trying to meet that problem. I’m not trying to rise above it. I’m not trying to destroy it. I’m merely trying to sit here and understand—not understand the problem, but understand the reality behind the problem. And if I can be perfectly quiet and perfectly still, with no attempt now to overcome, destroy, remove, escape—if I can attain that, the flood will come in, the flow of the Spirit, and there will be freedom.
Now if I can’t, then I must turn to someone. If I am at a stage where the mind is whirly-whirly and it won’t settle down, and it’s got me really afraid of this problem, or in too much pain, or one thing and another, and I realize I just cannot achieve that inner non-resistance—always remember that I’m teaching you from the Master’s statement, “Resist not evil”—and I can’t achieve that; if there’s something in me that wants to battle; if there’s something in me that wants to argue; something in me that wants to be afraid; then I must find somebody in whom I have the utmost confidence, somebody who can attain that state of being in spite of any appearance. I must find them. Then if they will sit down, neither fearing the problem, hating the problem, certainly not loving it, but willing to be receptive, the Father will speak. It will come in, and then that one will say to me, “It’s all right. Don’t worry. Taken care of.” And in its due time, sooner or later—usually very soon—the problem disappears.
1This excerpt is from Recording #190A, 1957 First Halekou Closed Class, “Symbolism – Concepts.” 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 at www.joelgoldsmith.com or by calling 1-800-922-3195.
2 See Luke 11:26