Following each session, on this page, we will post the quotation we used, should you want to refer to it throughout the day.
(Please note that some quotations have been slightly edited for reading ease. In some cases, ellipses, which indicate that some text was not included, have been omitted.)
Many of you know this quotation well since it comes from the first of Joel’s “most important chapters.” We chose it for our first meditation because it establishes us in the reality of the spiritual universe rather than in the dream of human existence.
THE SENSE which presents pictures of discord and inharmony, disease and death, is the universal mesmerism which produces the entire dream of human existence. . . . Above this sense-life, there is a universe of Spirit governed by Love, peopled with children of God living in the household or temple of Truth. This world is real and permanent: Its substance is eternal Consciousness. In it there is no awareness of discords or even of temporary and material good.
~ The Infinite Way, Chapter 11, “The New Horizon”
We can shine the light of peace on the American electorate, but before we can give peace to others, we must first find peace within ourselves.
There is a peace that passeth understanding and it is possible for us to attain this peace even in the world of discord that appears to be about us. “My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth,” but rather My peace. This is a promise that within us, there is this My peace, which is the Christ-peace, given to us even before the world began.
Our reliance now is not on some thing, or some condition, or upon some person in the outer world, but here and now, in this very instant, we transfer our faith and confidence from the outer world to a Withinness—that which within ourselves is My peace, a peace that is not the peace that the world can give us, but a peace that only the Christ can bestow.
~ The Heart of Mysticism, 1957 Letters, Chapter 2, “Major Principles of The Infinite Way”
Every four years, as attention in the United States is focused on selecting the president and vice president, Infinite Way students are reminded of how important it is to realize that “the government is on His shoulders.” The “ten righteous men,” those who know this truth, can play a significant role in bringing to pass God’s government on earth as it is in heaven.
An election is an opportunity for citizens to exercise their franchise and vote for the candidates of their choice. To vote intelligently and fulfill their responsibilities as citizens, every voter should be thoroughly familiar with the issues and know how each candidate stands on these issues. . . . Over and above that, and even more important, is the meditation or spiritual work in which each student engages to the end that citizens are not swayed by the carnal mind and the highly charged promotional activities characteristic of a typical presidential campaign.
Each student should realize that the universal human mind, with its lust for power, greed, and self-seeking, is not power in the realized presence of God; that this election, as an activity for the preservation of freedom, is taking place within the one Consciousness, which is Intelligence and Love, and that only I votes. That I is the divine Consciousness, individualized. It is guided by a wisdom beyond human understanding and is, therefore, unerring in Its judgment.
~ I Stand on Holy Ground, Chapter 11, “Self-Purification, the Way to Mystical Consciousness,” in “Across the Desk”
Very often, one individual can change the nature of history. In recent elections, you have seen how much of the election was influenced by a few votes. Just a few votes in this city or that city, or this community or that community, have influenced an entire state’s results. And just a very few votes—comparatively speaking, less than half of one percent—influenced an entire national election. So, you can readily understand how powerful one single vote can be, or a dozen votes, or two dozen votes.
Very often, we think how little power we have in the history of our nation or the world, not realizing how much power there is in an individual. For all time, history has been influenced just by one individual here or there. So it is that we not only influence our own lives, but no one knows who the individual is who may influence the history of an entire year, or what group may bring about changes in the history of the world.
~ Recording 385B, 1961 Christmas and New Year’s—Waikiki Study, “Spiritual New Year”
May the light of truth, wisdom, and love shine on every American.
We are becoming the center from which light is flowing, the center through which forgiveness, understanding, and truth will begin to pour. Peace must begin somewhere, and it must begin with one individual. Spiritual light has always entered consciousness through one individual so permeated with truth that a dozen disciples here, or a half dozen there, have caught hold of it, and then from them come the fifty, the two hundred, and the two thousand.
No one of us can be the light of the world. We can be only the light that sparks the light in others until it spreads around the world. So it is that we become that one in our household, that one in our neighborhood, and, depending on the depth and degree of our love, we can become the one to a whole nation or a group of nations. It always begins with one. We can be that one. We can be that light in the measure of our understanding.
~ A Parenthesis in Eternity, Chapter 32, “Address the World Silently with Peace”
As we dwell together in the light of truth and peace, may that light go forth to bless and illumine all Americans.
If we sat down with our one statement of truth and applied it to some national or international problem—this one comes to me now—the coming election. Let’s forget for a minute that we are American citizens and have some personal stake in how the election comes out. Let’s say we’re citizens of any country on the face of the globe. Our interest isn’t the Democratic Party or Republican Party. Our interest is merely that [there be] a leader of the highest intelligence and integrity.
If we can agree on that, we can, until election day, forget our partisanship and our personal beliefs and say, “All right, if prayer is a power, now I want to pray that the United States of America be given the most intelligent and the most honest government possible. How am I to pray?”
This is the answer that came to me. Judas Iscariot betrayed the Master and committed suicide, and there were eleven disciples left. There had to be twelve to function properly, so they met to elect the twelfth. Do you remember what their prayer was? “Father, show us whom Thou hast chosen.”
If we prayed like that, “Father, show us whom Thou has chosen to be president, senator, governor,” it would be a very different election than if you and I were to say, “No, my grandparents were Republicans, and I’m a Republican, too,” or “My ancestors were Democrats, and I wouldn’t betray my ancestry.” If we could rise above our humanhood and say, “Father, show us whom Thou has chosen,” one or both of these candidates might resign before election day, and we might have to nominate somebody else.
Anything could happen if they weren’t the right ones. God could make anything at all happen if we really felt, “Thy will be done, not mine.” You’d be surprised how miracles could happen, and we find ourselves God-governed instead of man-governed.
~ Recording 156A, 1956 Chicago Open Class, “Start Healing Today”
“Father, show us whom Thou hast chosen.”
We have the opportunity to live a life so spiritually governed that we will bear fruit richly, and the discords of the world will not come nigh our dwelling place.
That opportunity comes only through surmounting our problem, and that problem is the ability to rise above the use of the world’s weapons, to rise above thinking in terms of human solutions, depending upon them, or believing that in any way, they will ultimately solve the world’s problems.
We render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. We pray for guidance as to whom to vote for. We go to the polls on election day and find no excuse to stay home. That is an obligation of citizenship. But we cannot expect that the world’s problems will be solved that way.
The world’s problems will be solved spiritually. They will be solved without taking up the sword, without rebellion, without revolution, without taking sides. Certainly, as citizens, we vote for whoever is revealed to us as representing the highest human form of government. But we should not put the responsibility upon any elected official to save the world.
~ The Altitude of Prayer, Chapter 10, “The Widening Circle of Prayer”
We can ask ourselves, “How can I contribute to the spiritual solution of the world’s problems?”
In this meditation period, I am entirely free of all worldly cares and worries so that I can be fully immersed in the Spirit and enjoy spiritual refreshment.
Right now, I rest from all material power and mental power. I rest. I have only one purpose right now: To have the realization of God’s presence, God’s power, and God’s grace. That’s all.
I put aside all concerns of the human world, both personal and universal—health concerns, concerns about supply, concerns about family, concerns about the apparent temporal powers at play in the world. I do not fight them, but I do not allow them to disturb the peace of my meditation. I put them aside gently, enter the sanctuary of my being, and close the door.
Now, I rest in the silence. I rest from mental activity. I rest from worry and fear. I rest from knowing, from doing, and from taking anxious thought about anything. I rest in stillness, in peacefulness, in confidence. Right now, my only function is to be still, to be quiet, to be at peace. Nothing is expected of me. I do not have to do anything or think anything. I rest in receptivity, and I listen.
~ A Parenthesis in Eternity, Chapter 31, “There Remaineth a Rest”
When I am at peace, that peace flows out to the world.
We don’t want to change anybody’s mind as to whom they should vote for. We don’t want to influence anybody humanly. When we are thinking of an election, let us sit in the silence and proclaim our message—not our will, not our wish, not our desire, but our spiritual message of God’s government on earth, without words and without thoughts, and it will respond to us.
Suppose you have a political conviction, and one of your friends or family has some opposing conviction. If you feel duty-bound, perhaps patriotic, in changing the thought or opinion of this person, don’t do it. Retire back into the great silence and let the silence be the teacher, and maybe you will find that they were right and you were wrong. Let the silence instruct your friend and you in what the truth of the situation may be.
~ Recording 19B, 1952 Honolulu Closed Class, Fulfillment – continued
At this stage of your unfoldment, you owe a debt to God and to the world, and that is that you do not pass by on the other side of the road, but that you take note of every discord, every inharmony, and bring to bear the activity of the Christ. Be a transparency through which the Christ may dissolve the appearance.
You do nothing, and you do not necessarily have to think anything, but you must be still. You must be still for an instant and let His Spirit flow through you to the appearance and dissolve it. You may not pass by on the other side. It only takes a moment, the blink of an eye, to realize that in the presence of Christ, temporal power is not power.
Realize that in the face of every appearance, whenever a human appears to us, we are to lift up the Son of God in them and realize God incarnate in them. Whenever an appearance of sin, disease, death, lack, limitation, or disaster presents itself to us, we are instantly to realize that in the presence of God realized, in the presence of the realized Christ, temporal power is not power. Whether that temporal power appears in the form of sin, disease, death, accident, or war, we are to realize that in the presence of the realized Christ, temporal power is not power. There is no greater power than I Am in heaven or on earth.
~ Recording 562B, 1964 London Studio Class, “World Work – We May Not Pass by on the Other Side”
Let no one find condemnation in your consciousness. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have opinions. It doesn’t mean being foolish and saying, “What difference does it make who governs our country or what kind of a president or Congress we have?” or “Let anybody get in there because they’re all spiritual.”
If we have the consciousness of man’s true identity, it will be pointed out to us who comes nearest to approaching that. Thus, we are guided to vote for the right candidate, the right party at any given time.
~ Recording 234B, 1958 London Advanced Class, “Meditation”
Let us contemplate true identity.
Without any words or thoughts, many times a day, retire, even if for half a minute, and acknowledge the Presence, acknowledge the light, feel the divine energy. Live so that anyone who comes within range of your consciousness feels the outpouring of God upon them.
Be at peace. Be still. God is. God is light. God is the light of the world. Let that light fill your consciousness, and then take the world into your consciousness. Let the world feel your peace, the peace that passes understanding. Let the Christ of you say, “My peace I give unto you—not the world’s peace, but My peace. The grace of the Father flows through me to you.”
~ Recording 50B, 1953 First New York Closed Class, “A Meditation”
Whenever agitation comes to your thought, find a place to rest and relax, and then wait. Wait for the peace to descend upon you. As peace descends upon you inwardly, you may be assured that whatever the name or nature of the storm without, it also is being stilled.
~ Recording 8A-2, 1952 New Washington Series, “The Deep Silence of My Peace”
PLEASE NOTE: Recording 8A-2 is available for listening at any time. To access the recording online, click/tap here. To listen by telephone, call 1-641-715-3900 and enter 883603#.
Prayers shouldn’t be for peace on earth. Prayers should be that the Christ touch men’s souls and awaken them. . . . Our prayers should be that the Spirit of God illumine the hearts and minds of men and women; that the Christ touch their consciousness and awaken them to the realization of their true identity, of the true nature of life.”
~ Recording 229A, 1958 London Open Class, “Tenth Chapter of John – I Am Come”
PLEASE NOTE: November 5 was the last of our Goldsmith Global meditations to support the American election spiritually. As we announced previously, other groups have been conducting similar sessions, two of which have been meeting at the same time as we have—8:00 a.m. Pacific time.
If you would like to continue with these morning meditations in support of the election, we are happy to let you know that one of these groups, led by our dear fellow Infinite Way student, Peggy West, will continue the morning meditations through November 17, and you are most welcome to join in.
Peggy’s group meets at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. There is no online session or telephone number to call; participants simply meditate in their own location for as long as they are led.
We are deeply grateful to Peggy for her gracious leadership in this activity of love and service.