Like Recording 517, Side 2, this class was used as source material for Chapter 3, “Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image,” and for Chapter 6, “Measuring Spiritual Progress, in Beyond Words and Thoughts. While this recording is no longer available for listening on this website, if you are a subscriber to the Joel S. Goldsmith Streaming Service, you will be able to listen to it there. The additional study material for this recording will continue to be available here on the Goldsmith Global site. To purchase this recording or the transcript from The Infinite Way Office, click/tap here. (Remember that all Goldsmith classes are available for purchase on iTunes as well. If you use iTunes, this may be a more convenient ordering option for you.)
In this class, Joel mentions the September 1963 Letter. For your reference, the 1963 Infinite Way Letters comprise the book Living Now, and the September 1963 Letter is Chapter 9, titled “The Nature of Consciousness” in that book. Joel also notes that the September Letter comes from three of the 1963 Hotel Talks. These Hotel Talks are compiled in the book Consciousness Transformed, and the particular talks that were used for the September Letter are the talks of August 5, 1963 (“The Nature of Spiritual Prayer”), March 31, 1963 (“My Consciousness”), and June 9, 1963 (“Christ: The Unfoldment from Within”).
This summary is provided simply to remind you of the content of the class. To download or print this summary, click/tap here.
This Infinite Way work is built on two words: “is” and “as.” God is, and God is manifest as man. There is no twoness. As Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” But for centuries, we have lived in the sense of separation from God. We have been taught that God was something separate and apart from our own being.
It is difficult to believe you are one with God, because there is no time in your life when you feel that you are God, or even that you are spiritual. You may have a physical pain or a financial lack and think that if you were one with God, this could not be. Erroneous teachings have set up this sense of separation from God, and they prevent us from taking the steps that will eventually prove that “I and my Father are one,” and that “all that the Father hath is mine.”
First, you must remember: Do not judge by appearances. Do not judge from the fact that today you may be ill, or poor, or having sinful thoughts, or even committing a sin. Do not judge from that as to whether you are one with God. All that can tell you is that at this moment, you have a sense of separation from God. It does not prove that you are not one with God. The centuries have set up this sense of separation from God, and you have not yet attained the actual consciousness of your oneness with God.
You are already one with God, but you will only prove it in proportion as you attain the actual awareness of the relationship that already exists. So, you must not judge by the appearance of today or by your progress, because no one on the spiritual path can ever evaluate their own progress. Sometimes we go along for years feeling that we are making absolutely no progress. Then, suddenly, there is a shift. This happened to Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, and to Siddhartha, who became the Buddha. Neither thought they were making spiritual progress. Every mystic has discovered that when they meditated, studied, practiced, and did what they were instructed to do, despite not seeming to make much progress, suddenly the old man was dead, and the new man was born.
The reason you cannot feel progress is that you cannot “feel” spiritual, just as you cannot feel honest or moral. You can be honest or moral, but you can’t feel it. Being spiritual is a state of consciousness, but there is always a trace of human identity in every mystic, and this is why you never feel wholly worthy or spiritually successful. You must learn to disregard appearances and ignore the times when you feel very human or a failure. Rather, judge by your inner motive. Is there a drive keeping you on this path? Is something holding you to your meditations, studies, and practice of the principles? If so, you are making progress. But really, it isn’t “you” making progress. You have been touched by the Spirit, and It will not let you go until It breaks through fully.
How do we prove that “I and my Father are one;” and that the allness of God is already established within me? The way is this: I meditate alone, turning within myself. I do not turn to anything outside of my own being. We need nothing and nobody in this world, if only we can have the assurance of this divine Presence within us. But we do not get this assurance from books or from rituals. We get it in only one way: going for it where it is—within me. The abiding place of God is within me, within the inner sanctuary of my own being. So, we contemplate:
I am not seeking anything but Thy kingdom, Thy grace, the assurance that Thou art closer to me than breathing, that thou knowest my need, and that it is Thy good pleasure to give me the kingdom. If I and my Father are one, then God is right here where I am. I am going within for Thy grace, the realization of Thy presence. The place whereon I stand is holy ground because God is here. I accept God as omnipresence, omniscience, and love.
Heretofore, I have had this relationship of oneness, but I have not had the consciousness of it. But if I make this contact and receive an assurance from within me that “Son, thou art ever with me … My grace is thy sufficiency in all things,” I will have the entire secret of the mystical life. I will be enabled to prove that “I live, yet not I; Christ lives my life.” Words and thoughts about this do not make the demonstration. This Christ, the Spirit of God within me, which I have now contacted and become consciously one with, is the Presence that goes before me, is my meat, bread, wine, and hidden manna that the world knows not of.
If God is ever to function in the human scene and prevent the disasters of earth, it can only happen through making contact with the Father within to the point of realization. Words and thoughts do not make your demonstration. Statements of truth are not Truth; they are the truth about the Truth. Those statements will not be true in your experience until you have experienced the Father, the Christ within you, and received from within your own being this assurance of My peace, My grace, My presence. You never have to go anywhere except within yourself. All your reading and hearing of the word is just for the purpose of giving you principles with which to work to develop your consciousness, so that you can have longer and longer periods of inner quiet until that contact is made.
On the three-dimensional level of life, the mind can be used as a power for good or for evil. The mind itself is not a power; it is an instrument. It is the individual on the human level of life who is using the mind for good or for evil. But once you have chosen the mystical path, you no longer have the power to be good or evil, because when you meditate and contact the Spirit within, “It performeth that which is given you to do.” It lives your life, and It is neither good nor evil. It is just spiritual and perfect and infinite.
In the presence of this which is released when you touch the center of your being, temporal powers are not power. Mind, thoughts, and body become instruments for the Spirit and are never destructive. The material body becomes an instrument to be governed and controlled by the Spirit within. The mind becomes an instrument for the thinking of Spirit, and those thoughts are spiritual and eternal. My mind, thoughts, and body become a blessing to this world and all who come within range of me because all is governed by the Spirit that is touched and consciously realized in meditation.
Without this experience in meditation, we are living on words and thoughts, which are not the real power. When the actual experience of meditation comes, the release of the Spirit, “I live, yet not I” and “Thy grace is my sufficiency in all things” are no longer quotations. They are lived.
Many people do not believe in the Bible because its promises are not true in the world. But this is their experience because they are depending on quotations, not on God. The Bible reveals that religion is an experience, not a book of promises, but the world has been living on a book of promises instead of the experience. Everything in the Bible is truth when it is experienced.
The Infinite Way began with this revelation: There is no God or Christ in this world until you experience It. Anything can happen to this world because it is living as a branch of a tree that is cut off. But after we surrender our lives to this inner Spirit, everything performed under Its guidance, direction, and protection must be harmonious, successful, fruitful, and abundant. However, you cannot have God’s government in one part of your life and not another. Complete surrender means surrendering yourself to the influence of purity, harmony, and grace in every department of life.
God does not function on a personal basis, so in surrendering ourselves to the Spirit within, we must remember that what I seek, I seek for all mankind, friend or enemy. We must realize the universal nature of God’s grace. This is our world work: “Let thy grace be upon all mankind. Let all men be receptive to Thy presence.”
When you go within, you are going within your own consciousness, because that is where you live; it is the sanctuary of your being. In fact, it isn’t “your” consciousness; it is the consciousness which you are. You are consciousness, and you go within to that consciousness which you are, and out of the consciousness which you are flows spiritual grace.
During our study of the eight most important chapters in The Infinite Way writings, we provided a document titled “Am I Reading or Am I Studying?” In this document, we suggested one study method that has proven very helpful. It consists of several steps, one of which was to ask, “Were any scriptural verses used to support the message of this chapter? What other scriptural passages come to me that relate to the message of the chapter?”
In this document, we have collected the scriptural passages that Joel used in Recording 518, Side 1, which is the source material for both Chapter 3, “Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image,” and Chapter 6, “Measuring Spiritual Progress,” in Beyond Words and Thoughts. Each passage could be used as a beginning for a contemplative meditation, pondering how the passage relates to the message of the class or the chapter. You will probably want to use the passages one at a time, choosing the one that resonates with you for a particular contemplation period. To access this document, click/tap here.