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Thou wilt keep him in perfect
Peace whose mind is stayed on
Thee: because he trusteth in thee
                                                         Isaiah 26:3

WHISPERS FROM WITHIN
March 2006

 In Quietness and Confidence

 

 

          The very first thing that’s necessary in this work is to quiet the mind. As we remember however that we have no power of our own, we can take comfort in realizing that the spirit of God in us doeth the work. He/It perfecteth that which concerneth me. As a start though, we do learn ways of settling our busy mind so that it becomes receptive to an inner Presence. We read the inspired spiritual writings - especially Joel’s - of the world’s great mystics, scripture, and other materials to fill our mind with the correct letter of truth so that in time this truth will flow forth to our conscious awareness without us having to think the thoughts ourselves.

          The matter of getting quiet inside can be a lengthy process for some, but not necessarily for others. It isn’t a matter of God favoring some individuals. God wouldn’t be God if such were the case. No, it’s just that we are all Consciousness in the absolute sense but we are each at a different stage of development. And this development has been ongoing since before Abraham was. In other words, God has been perfecting Its children/offspring/manifestations throughout all time, and since each one has had its own individual experience of worldly conditioning, each is at a different stage of development. This means you and I have to take ourselves where we find ourselves in the moment. Getting inwardly still becomes of utmost importance because it is through that stillness of our inner being that the still small voice of the Divine is detected, heard, or sensed.

           As we sometimes seem to go far afield in this search for truth, ultimately we are always led back to the simple yet profound principles of the message of The Infinite Way. For example, right here now as we consider the process of quieting the mind we immediately recall that the method taught us is meditation. All of the work proceeds and continues in the degree of our ability, willingness, and actual practice of meditation. No one will get very far without it! Ah! It’s the simplicity of it all that trips up the seemingly all knowing ego or intellect. And it is this ever-active intellect/ego that is the source of the constant state of discord that we experience. But underpinning this active doer is a false state of consciousness called humanhood that first must be overcome or dissolved. The source of the problem must be uprooted in order for the change to have lasting effect.

           The still small voice cannot be detected over the clamor of the noisy human mind. It reminds me of trying to listen to some soft, soothing music at low volume while the members of one’s household are clamoring, talking, bickering, playing, or otherwise being noisy and unruly at the same time. The music gets muted by all of the other louder more distracting activities that are simultaneously taking place. So in some manner we must still the mind that we may become aware of a Presence in our midst. It isn’t possible for either us, or, any of psychology’s trendy hocus-pocus, to stop the mind’s activity. But there is a way that the mind will come to rest of its own accord. In the message of The Infinite Way, we’ve learned this way to be that of taking statements of spiritual truth or passages of scripture and mentally rehearsing them, reading them, or in some way keeping them active in the mind. Eventually the truth we’ve deliberately held in our mind takes root in our awareness and then begins to flow out from us when we prime the pump, or, start the ball rolling. All of the good that will ever unfold spiritually in our experience will do so as a result of our first getting quiet enough to become aware of God, the only power, presence, intelligence, and reality that is within us now - and has been since time began.

          It is the awareness of the omnipotence of the God that is closer to us than breathing nearer than hands and feet, that becomes quick, sharp, and powerful in rendering us a quiet receptive state. But no matter how we choose to feebly describe the experience that takes place, the crucial point is that we do in fact have the experience. For only your firsthand experience and mine will be that which carries enough authority to be convincing. Nothing short of this is of any moment in the grand scheme of spiritual living, spiritual development.

           The longer we’re on a path such as this the clearer it becomes that God isn’t going to do anything especially for us that It isn’t already doing. It would be dishonoring God to think that God sits waiting on us to influence It in some way before It will act on our behalf. Why this would be the God of the Old Testament, a rewarding and punishing God. However, we’re told in scripture that God has no pleasure in our much sacrificing. In other words, we could do our human sacrificing from now until dooms day and God wouldn’t be moved one iota by any of it. God is forever BEING. God isn’t doing anything, in the human sense, that is. It is the very BEING-NESS of God that is the guarantee of the continuation of this universe and all therein. Of a certainty, the outer forms or concepts will change but their underlying maintaining and sustaining essence is eternal and immortal. Since it isn’t God that’s going to move out of Its orbit, then that leaves only you and I to move out of ours to find God. Perhaps, if we bring ourselves into that unchanging realm of Spirit It will influence or affect us in some way. Yes, yes, maybe if I can first do my part of preparing a way for God to enter my awareness, Its light will have the affect of so illuminating my darkened consciousness that I’ll no longer have the erroneous belief that there is a God and me. Maybe by my very own willingness to move in God’s direction It will meet me at least half way down the path. And furthermore, since God can’t be/won’t be other than It already is, what do I have to lose by placing my trust in God’s love for me? And so, eventually we do make contact with our inner spiritual realm; in proportion, depth, or degree of that contact will we find ourselves resting in quietness.

           More satisfying, and convincing, than the sense of quiet experienced in our mind is the abiding feeling of confidence generated by the assurance of God being with us, closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet all the time - even when we’re not conscious of it. Yet, it is getting quiet first that enables us to actually have a conscious experience of God.
With any new experience, the first, second, third, fourth, or even the tenth occasion may not cause us to feel entirely confident. But if we continue having the same or similar ones long enough, a sense of assurance does develop within us. It’s this firsthand experience that produces the quality of knowledge that is impervious to the doubting Thomas’ of the world; no amount of human belief to the contrary can sway us from what has been revealed and proven within the secrecy of our own consciousness. If God consciously comes to life in us, then nothing and no one can ever again make us doubt there is a God. Our days will be spent basking in the confidence of realizing that we are never alone and that we take God with us wherever we go, whether make our bed in heaven or find ourselves temporarily in some form of hell.

           "O hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," Deut 6:4, contains within it the secret of how we are to attain this state of confidence. The instruction of this passage of scripture is that spiritual aspirants come into the awareness of the one God through listening. It is through the development of the listening ear or, in other words, the ability to become receptive to that presence of God within our consciousness that has been called the still small voice or the Christ.Is there anyone who hasn’t experienced the feeling of confidence in some area of her life? It would be sad to think that a person has gone through life without being confident at something, anything. Just recall how wonderful it felt to know for a certainty you could do or be something in particular. You held your head up high. You were proud. These are all good feelings we have about our self when we are confident of our ability to perform some function or be some way. Now, just imagine, if that’s possible, how much more satisfying it would be if you and I were confident of God being forever with us. Why we would walk this earth as realized (felt) children of Spirit - invisible, immortal, and eternal Being.

           In quietness and in confidence we will be strong, for in reality it will be God that is the strength in our life. For the most part, by the time you and I reach that inner state of stillness and confidence we will have become consciously one with Spirit and thus will have died to a personal sense of self. All of our work in moving toward God was but a gradual undetectable process of being rid of the false sense of self that had been imposed upon us. Functioning under that imposition, our entire experience was one of unacknowledged fear for the life that we thought belonged to us. Our every waking moment was dedicated in one fashion or another to its preservation. Is it any wonder then that you and I would eventually grow weary in our endeavor to protect something that didn’t really exist in truth? The whole sense we entertained of our self was but a fabrication of mind. However, as our discontent with this way of life mounted we were led to seek something better, and from a totally different source - from within our self. This led us to the discovery of a way to become quiet so that we could get in touch with our essence or spirit. Making the actual discovery of Spirit in us was in itself a life changing experience, however, it wasn’t until that one occasion was followed by a succession of other similar one’s over quite some time that the spiritual Presence which we had found finally was accepted as a permanent state within us, never again to be lost. In this last, the confidence attendant upon our certainty of a presence always near at hand blossomed forth as the motivating source of all our experience. 

GG

GG….Glorifying God abbreviated