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John

A SPIRITUAL MESSAGE IS ABOUT NEITHER THE WORDS AND THOUGHTS COMPRISING IT NOR THE PERSONAL/HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS OF THOSE UTTERING IT

 

          It has been noticed over the years that some students continuously discuss the words and thoughts of the message of the Infinite Way.  They quibble over irrelevancies.  Joel states very clearly that there’s nothing mystical or mysterious about any of the words or thoughts he has ever spoken or that have found their way into print, so it can be justifiably assumed that no one else’s will be any different.

            Some of us cling to the words and thoughts failing to move forward to catch the spirit of them.  There are those among us who are enamored by eloquently spoken words.  Individual speech characteristics also are quite attractive to some.  Our purpose for being on the spiritual path is to be elevated in consciousness, at first temporarily by way of someone else’s development and finally hopefully by the grace of God in us individually once we have sufficiently prepared our consciousness.  It isn’t even the words and thoughts of another in the initial stages that does any thing for us.  It’s the fact that they have progressed/advanced through both stages allowing them to be developed/realized states of spiritual consciousness to some degree that is then able to lift others into the realm that they have attained.  Lacking this attained spiritual state no words or thoughts regardless how grand will be of any real help.  Those things may excite some emotional responses or reactions but such has never healed anything.

            So what good are words and thoughts then?  In the message of The Infinite Way they serve as aids to quiet our noisy rambling human mind.  The mental practice of keeping some metaphysical or spiritual statement of truth active in us, drawing forth revelation and expansion of those ideas, causes the thinking mind to relax and become more or less a beholder of the infinite supply of wisdom flowing into our awareness from out of that area of our consciousness that is unlimited.  In contemplative meditation we make ample use of words and thoughts but we need to be certain we understand how we are using them and for what purpose.  It’s easy to get caught up into thinking - especially if we’ve been involved in a metaphysical teaching before coming to this path - that there is power in the words and thoughts - and there isn’t.  Whatever power these may seem to have is actually in the invisible Spirit of the person uttering them.  The words and thoughts can be heard but the real source of them can only be felt - that is, experienced.  And primarily, at least in the beginning, the feeling is a spiritual sense of peace that envelopes one when his/her awareness has been momentarily freed of its attachment to human mind considerations. 

            Many lose their way on this path from relying on only the letter of truth, the words and thoughts.  Perhaps this affects those coming out of metaphysical teachings more than others because of the many years of practice in mentally overcoming discords and inharmonies.  These practices become habits that are difficult to let go of.  But in this message no power is given to a word or a thought.  God alone is power! The IAM in each of us is all the power there is!  IT isn’t a power over anything.  IT isn’t a good power that overcomes an evil power.  ITS oneness makes the existence of any other power impossible.  Less we forget, however, words and thoughts do have power on the mental level of life.  This fact isn’t to be denied.  But even the mental level itself isn’t a reality, isn’t a product of Spirit so therefore isn’t power.  This can only be demonstrated however by an individual who has risen above the mental into the spiritual where oneness is revealed.  By not having risen to this estate, the individual can only think thoughts about it and that hasn’t any power - that is thinking about it rather than being it.  Only in being a spiritual state of consciousness can an individual partake of the divine truth of oneness as the real relationship in the universe.

            The use of the letter of truth is a preparation for the further development of consciousness through the crucial part of meditation - inner silence.  Since it isn’t possible for an individual to stop thinking, a way must be found to attain some semblance of tranquility in the mind.  For it is through a composed still mind that the voice of GOD is heard.  The use of spiritually inspired words and thoughts aids in attaining this objective; the continual calling forth of scriptural passages or other statements of spiritual truth focuses our mind and attention, and in this state we find that we ultimately empty ourselves (momentarily, at least) of all thought regarding the subject matter - the scriptural passage or statement of spiritual truth - we’ve chosen.  When no more words or thoughts surface from this focused frame of mind - and since we’ve shut out everything else - we’re left with a quiet mind, a mind in which the swirl of worldly human thought has completely subsided.  We experience, if only for a few moments at first, an indescribable peace and serenity of mind.  It’s a state that has been termed “the peace that passeth [human] understanding.”

            I and my Father are one is just a statement of truth, nothing more.  It will not do anything for anybody simply as a statement even though it is absolute truth.  A statement is simply a group of words that we utter.  In spite of the fact the statement is a declaration of ultimate truth, still, as only a statement in our mind it will not give us peace or any of the other spiritual treasures.  Something more is required of us.  We are to take the statements of truth and live (study, meditate on) with them until their interior meaning is revealed to us in a way that we can accept and thereby demonstrate in our lives.  Each one of us contains the infinite storehouse of Spirit as all-knowingness so we need only turn within our self trusting that our true Self knows what we have need of and that it is Its good pleasure to give it to us.

            Since words or thoughts will not do anything for us, and turning within our self is the path to illumination of statements of spiritual truth, where exactly are we to begin?  As with all matters spiritual, we are to start our contemplation with the question: what is God?  If we learn the true answer to this one question in time all the other pieces to the puzzle will fall into place of their own accord.  Then it is worthwhile to take whatever time is needed tabernacling within with one’s inner Self in order to retrieve a definite response to the question: what is God?  If a person had to spend the remainder of her time in the present incarnation inquiring within about this question the time would not have been wasted.  On the other hand, a life no matter how long lived in ignorance of the knowledge of what God is would be nothing but a waste.  Mystics as a rule do not wear happy faces in the sense that this world can appreciate.  Their joy is manifested, if at all, in the Mona Lisa like countenance.  Is the Mona Lisa a happy smiling face or a sullen one?  Alas, it is in the eye of the beholder.

         The spiritual life, mystical living, or the spiritual path is not about something taking place in the intellect, in the mind.  This invisible life, message, and teaching we are drawn to is about consciousness.  It is about a return to the original state of consciousness that we all are.

          Therefore, we find that we receive healings and spiritual regeneration from anyone we are led to who has attained some measure of spiritual consciousness and is therefore living consciously at a higher level of awareness than we are at the moment.  It is such a one who can lead us back to a union with our source: she can direct our steps back to the Father’s house within us.  No one is able to do this for every individual who comes to him.  So we are always free to search until we find the one who can so lead us to our spiritual home.  

          The spiritual life isn’t a life of forever being a follower of somebody else no matter how enlightened she may be.  No, we’re all equal; we’re all one having equal portions of God to draw on.  We only need to become aware of this truth, and in the beginning we require the consciousness of an individual who has already made - and is living it - this discovery to assist us in finding it for our self.  No one truly finding this blessing will be misled in thinking he now has some power to lord it over others who don’t yet know the truth of their own being.  God is no respecter of persons so no one finding God will be able to be aware of anything other than God.  There won’t be any people separate and apart from the one who has found the treasure.  The Treasure Itself will pour forth revealing all existence to be It in manifold expression.  But it takes the developed consciousness of an individual to be able to catch the vision of spiritual oneness.  Without such development all that is perceivable is a world of human beings separate and apart from each other: human beings who can be taken advantage of, misled, and manipulated for some deluded person’s own seeming good.  It is in this human state of consciousness that we find personality worshiping which is just another form of idolatry.  When this happens men and women are virtually lost because they believe some person has somehow been singled out to be blessed by God while they themselves are but lost sheep.

           Many find themselves attracted to individual teachers based, among other things, on some likeable human characteristic(s).  For instance, the sound of the voice can be quite seductive for some as it can in some cases have a seeming charismatic attraction.  Some accents are extremely pleasant to the ear also.  Of course, the physical stature or appearance can be either a plus or a minus depending upon individual human taste.  How an individual personally responds to us makes a world of difference.  I recall a longtime student of the Infinite Way remarking that he never cared for Joel Goldsmith when he met him personally.  He stated that Joel was cold and impersonal, and so he did not take up this path until many years later when it was mentioned to him by a close friend who was a devoted student.

          But in none of a person’s human traits or characteristics is anything to be found that will spiritually uplift or heal someone else of anything.  We may very well be attracted to these attributes and spend many years being led around by our human enchantment.  However, in the end we won’t be anywhere near a “realization” of our spiritual identity.  True, we may know of our spiritual identity intellectually from the words and thoughts uttered by our personality-idol over a period of time.  But we’ll always be confounded with our same ills, pains, lacks and limitations for we got lost in external personality worship instead of following our inner leading which would have led us onward away from the external and inward to a conscious union with God. 

           Yet, unless this desire to know God - and to know It aright - is spiritually implanted in us by grace we won’t continue the long arduous return spiritual journey back home to God.  Instead we’ll find ourselves falling by the wayside believing - as did the Hebrews of old - that this personality we worship is the Spirit incarnate sent to us to idolize losing all benefit of the truth that God is no respecter of persons (personalities) and so is in each of us in equal measure.  This is Love in action!  This is how God loves this world by being intimately available to saint and sinner alike while taking no thought as to what we have previously been or thought. 

           Spirit/God/IAM/Consciousness readily forgives all and we can know and experience this benediction when once we wholeheartedly turn within our self to our Self (IAM/Consciousness/Spirit/God).