Recording 174A, “How to Pray,” is from the 1956 New York Laurelton Hotel Class. It was used as source material for Chapter 11, “I Say Unto You,” and Chapter 13, “The Father Which Seeth in Secret,” in The Thunder of Silence. This recording is no longer available on this site. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. To purchase this recording or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office, click/tap here.
Recording Available for Continuing the Class
The recording for this session ends rather abruptly, with Joel saying, “I’m not going to stop for a while anyhow.” So if you would like to hear the second part of this class, it is on recording 174B, titled “How to Pray, Side 1 Continued.” Recording 174B was used as source material for Chapter 14, “When You Pray,” and Chapter 15, “As We Forgive,” in The Thunder of Silence.
This recording is no longer available on this site. If you subscribe to the Joel Goldsmith Streaming Service, you can listen to it there. To purchase the recording and/or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office, click/tap here.
Choosing Points for Practice
For each class, it can be helpful to pick out a few of the points that particularly resonate with you, consider them thoughtfully, and work with them. In this class, Joel gives us quite a few to consider. Here are just two examples of points that seemed noteworthy. Undoubtedly, there are others that spoke to you.
1) Are we serious about the message of Jesus Christ?
Joel asked, “How many of you have ever asked yourselves seriously what you think about Jesus Christ and his message? [Have you] ever really sat down for hours and hours and hours at a stretch to read the four Gospels, to see if you could find what he was trying to teach, and whether or not it would be important for you to accept?”
Joel points out that through the Gospels, the message of Jesus is presented in such a way that you can either be a nominal Christian, pay lip service to it, and float along through life, or you can decide that it’s worth a period of study and trial—trial and error if necessary—until you come to the conviction that this is truly a way of life. He says that following the teaching of Christ Jesus “will demand a tremendous price, a strict way of life, inner joys untold, inner peace beyond your imagination, but for a while, quite a struggle with that little devil called self, me, I, and mine.”
No one can pray you into heaven. Truth is an activity which must take place in your individual consciousness. It can be presented to you, but that is as far as a teacher can go. Joel said, “Please remember that it is not going to lift you into heaven until you yourself accept it, receive it, respond to it. You yourself will have to practice it to find out whether it is a workable idea, whether it is a workable principle within you.”
2) Are we willing to practice “Love your enemies?”
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
Joel says that if you are following a spiritual path, you can’t just read this passage and imagine that it would be a beautiful way of life. You have to get up each day and do it. Every day you must set aside some period for the conscious remembrance that you are holding no one in bondage to their sins; that you want no one to suffer for their sins or be punished for them; that you forgive, knowing that “they know not what they do.”
Joel reminds us that it is not as simple as saying, “Oh, yes, I don’t wish any harm for anybody.” You have to sit down and face whomever you might consider the enemy and realize, “Father, open their eyes that they may see. Forgive them their offenses.” Why must we do this? “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.”
If we are not loving our enemies, if we are not blessing those who curse us, and not doing good to those who hate us, Joel says that we cannot pray aright because we are still in human, mortal consciousness, and God does not hear or respond to the prayers of human beings. To commune with God, we must be the children of God. We must be living the spiritual life, which enables us to pass from being under the law, where we have no access to God’s grace and our prayer is of no avail, into a state of grace where our prayer is assured of fulfillment.
To download or print these study suggestions, click/tap here.
These optional study suggestions will remain the same throughout the program, although from time to time, we will post additional recordings for further optional study.
Read Different Translations of The Sermon on the Mount
Joel has said that it can be helpful to read several different translations of any Bible text because they can elicit new insights for you. On the Introduction page for this study program, we quote Joel on this topic and provide information about ways to access multiple Bible translations.
Write Your Own Version
As you study the Sermon on the Mount, you might enjoy paraphrasing the Bible text in your own words, keeping your interpretations and notes in a special journal. One way to approach this activity is to take one section of the Sermon, read and contemplate it, and then listen in receptivity, asking for light and wisdom. Then write what comes to you. As you write, often you will find that more and more insight comes to you.
As we suggested for an earlier study program, if writing is not something you enjoy, you can work in a different medium, capturing your interpretations in paintings or drawings, sculpture, poetry, music, or any art form.
Practice the Teachings
Each week, you might choose one thing from the Sermon and focus on practicing that for the entire week. It might be one of the beatitudes, or some other instruction given by Jesus, such as “judge not” or “pray for your enemies” or “take no thought.” Contemplate your selection to understand what it means. What would it look like to practice it in your own life? Then watch yourself throughout the day and see how you do. If you go off the beam, what pulled you off? How did you (or could you) get back on track? Reminder cards placed around your home or workspace, or reminders kept on your smartphone can be very helpful with this type of practice.
Use the Electronic Search Tool
As you hear the recordings and read Part 3 of The Thunder of Silence, if you feel that you don’t quite understand something that Joel teaches, the electronic search tool can help clarify his meaning. You can search for the topic or term you want to understand better and find many different places where Joel addresses that topic or term. As you read the excerpts provided by the search tool, you will gain a clearer understanding. To access the search tool and the instructions for using it, click/tap here.
Additional Reading
Seek Ye First
The title of Joel’s book Seek Ye First comes from the passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:31-33)
In the book, Joel elaborates on the meaning of that passage and relates it directly to The Infinite Way principles. You might enjoy reading the book, or some excerpts from it, in connection with this study program.
The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox
Joel had high praise for Emmet Fox as a great mystic. So we are comfortable recommending the book The Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox. The book may be particularly helpful to those who do not have a deep knowledge of the Sermon, because Fox takes the reader passage by passage through the entire text, offering his enlightened interpretations and insights along the way.