the contemplative life - part 1-2

8/12/2019 The Contemplative Life - Part 1-2

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THECONTEMPLATIVE

LIFEBy Joel S. Goldsmith

Content

PART 1

ONEConscious Awareness

TWOErasing Our Concepts of God,

Prayer, and Grace

THREEBeginning the Contemplative Life

FOURThe Esoteric Meaning of the

Easter Week

FIVESteps on the Path of Illumination

Contemplative Meditation

SIXContemplative Meditation

PART 2

SEVENThe Dice of God Are Loaded

EIGHTContemplation Develops the Beholder

NINEDaily Preparation for Spiritual Living

TENMeditation on Life by Grace

ELEVENSupply and Secrecy

TWELVEThe Spiritual Christmas

PART 1

O N EConscious Awareness

Many persons who are seeking for truthor striving to find a way that will leadthem out of the inharmonies anddiscords of life gather the impressionthat there is some quick or short way ofovercoming all their problems; that there

is some kind of a message that they canread in books or hear from the lips of ateacher or lecturer, that will quickly takethem away from the troubles of amaterial way of living into the harmoniesof the spiritual life. This is the mistakethat is made in every one of theWestern countries.

It is not so in the East, where therelative unimportance of time is betterunderstood and where it is realized thatan evolution of consciousness can takeplace only over a span of years. But inthe West, where in one short life-cyclewe have gone from lamplight to modernelectric lighting and from the horse andbuggy era to automobiles and airplanes,where there has been an increase in the

speed of travel from 100 miles an hourto thousands of miles, we do not seemto have sufficient time or sufficientinterest to take the time for thedevelopment of spiritual consciousness.Because of this unbelievably rapidprogress, materially and mechanically,which has set the tempo of our times,many think that it is possible to apply



this same accelerated speed to thespiritual life.

But when it comes to spiritualunfoldment and spiritual progress, it isquite a different story. There, an elementof time enters into the situation, and it isthis element of time that our Westernworld seems unwilling to accept, or maynot be able or prepared to accept.

It is often possible for those of us whocome to a spiritual teaching to have ourproblems quickly met—physical, mental,moral, or financial --- but, of course,even if all our major problems were

quickly met, we still would be no betteroff than we were before, except for alittle temporary relief from the world'sdiscords, because regardless of whatfreedom we attain through the help of apractitioner or a teacher, we still have toevolve in our own consciousness inorder to maintain and sustain thatfreedom.

The Function of the TranscendentalConsciousness

Although work such as that of TheInfinite Way does help students toovercome their present physical, mental,moral, or financial difficulties, this is notits primary function. The goal of thisparticular Message is the spiritualizationof consciousness which, in the Westernworld, is described as the attainment ofthat mind which was in Christ Jesus:Christ-consciousness or thetranscendental consciousness. In theEast, this same goal is called theattainment of Buddhahood, or theBuddha-mind, or Buddhi, but all thoseterms mean the same thing, because

whether one receives enlightenment inthe East or in the West, the result isprecisely the same.

The point that I would like you to see atthis moment is that the goal of allreligious work should be spiritualenlightenment, that is, the attainment ofspiritual light. When this light comes, itcomes as a transcendental state ofconsciousness, and it is the attainmentof this transcendental state ofconsciousness that really constitutesthe activity of The Infinite Way, and isbasic to its teaching.

The first question that would naturallyarise in any seeker's mind is: What isthe transcendental state ofconsciousness and what function does itperform in my experience? My answerto that is that the transcendental orspiritual consciousness is a state ofconsciousness which instantaneouslyreleases an individual from all materialconcern. That, I believe, is its first andgreatest function in our lives. It releasesus from fear and doubt; it releases usfrom concern over what we shall eat, orwhat we shall drink, or wherewithal weshall be clothed. Most important of all, itreleases us from the fear of death.

Whether we have ever consciouslythought about it or not, all of us on the

human plane of life fear death. In fact,the one reason we fear disease isbecause the natural consequence ofdisease is death. We also fear agebecause age carries with it theconnotation of coming death. Death,because of its inevitability, is that whichis feared, and the fear of death is oftenthe very cause of our diseases.



With the first touch of spiritual light,however, all fear of death disappears,because that light reveals that there isno death and that the experience ofpassing from this plane of life to what iscalled the next is not really a death; it is

just another experience like our birth; itis a passing from one phase of life toanother. In other words, life never had abeginning; therefore our coming into thisworld was but a coming forth fromanother phase of life.

Some of those who have attained acertain degree of illumination are able to

go back and see different aspects oftheir life prior to their present earthexperience. Although that may notalways be possible, nevertheless, withthe first taste of spiritual light, we dorealize that, since there is no death,there need be no fear of it, and oncethat fear is eliminated, the body seemsto adjust itself, and health begins tomanifest instead of disease and thesigns of age.

The Transcendental ConsciousnessBrings a Release from Concern for

Persons or Things

Furthermore, when spiritual light hasonce touched the soul or consciousnessof an individual, never again can therebe concern about what we call supply:what we shall eat or drink, wherewithalwe shall be clothed, or how muchmoney we shall or shall not have. Thereason for this lack of concernconstitutes the sum and substance ofwhat must be our goal if we are to attainthe spiritual way of life.

In the ordinary human sense of life,concern is nearly always for things,persons, or conditions. If at this verymoment we were to think about what itis that worries us most we would in allprobability find that our fear isundoubtedly about something in theform of an effect: a person, a condition,a thing, an amount, a body, a bit ofmoney, or a piece of property. Always itis about an effect, and what concerns usis always in the realm of an effect.

As human beings, are we not alwaysstriving for some thing, some person, orsome condition? It may be for a living,

for fame, or for wealth; it may be for aneducation; it may be for health— butnearly always our life is centered on theattainment of something or other.

Most human beings fail during theirlifetime to attain what they have beenseeking and pass out of this lifefrustrated without ever having achievedtheir goals. Those who do reach theirgoals find that this achievement bringslittle permanent satisfaction. Someattain temporarily the perfect body, onlylater on to witness its disintegration;some attain the wealth that they havesought, and then after they have it, findthat when they have eaten three times aday and have an ample wardrobe ofclothing, all the rest of their money is of

so little use that their efforts to attain itseem almost foolish in retrospect.Rarely does money ever give a personthe satisfaction that he thought it wouldwhen he was struggling and striving forit. And I do not have to remind you thatfame gives back even less ofsatisfaction and is even more of anempty bauble than is wealth.



This does not mean that there isanything wrong about the attainment offame or wealth or health or a perfectbody. On the contrary, all these are theadded things that inevitably come whenthe spiritual way of life becomes our firstand major concern. In the spiritual wayof life, our first step is to disregardtemporarily our concern for things,persons, and conditions, and center ourattention on attaining a consciousrealization of our Source.

Becoming One with Our Source

It is a part of the Christian teaching, asgiven in the fifteenth chapter of John,that when we are one with our Source,we bear fruit richly, but when we areseparated from that Source, we are as abranch of a tree that is cut off andwithereth. The Ninety-first Psalm alsopromises that none of the evils of thisworld will come nigh the dwelling placeof those who have made God theirdwelling place, again indicating to usthat our oneness with our Source iswhat separates us from the evils of thisworld and maintains in our experiencethe harmonies of heaven.

The revelation was given to me that inmy conscious oneness with God, inbeing consciously one with my Source,the good things of life were added untome, that is, I was at-one with all good:with every form of good that might everbe necessary in my experience. TheMaster said, "Take no thought for yourlife, what ye shall eat, or what ye shalldrink; nor yet for your body, what yeshall put on. . . . But seek ye first thekingdom of God, and his righteousness;

and all these things shall be added untoyou." And so it was that this very sameconsciousness revealed to me thatwhen I am consciously one with God, Iam instantaneously one with all thegood necessary for my experience.Therefore, I must stop taking thoughtabout my supply, my health, or myhome. I must stop taking anxiousthought or concern for the things of thisworld, and I must make every effort toabide consciously in my oneness withGod.

The vital part and the heart of thatrevelation is that we are already one

with God. We are already one with ourLife-stream, or the Source of our life. Asa matter of fact, "I and my Father areone" is a relationship that is indivisibleand indestructible. It is an impossibilityfor my Father and me to becomeseparate because we are not two: weare one! We are and always have beenone with our Source, one with God.

The reason that the harmonies ofheaven and the blessings of divineGrace do not come into our experienceas they should lies in the one wordconsciously . Nothing can enter your lifeor mine except as it enters through ourconsciousness. This is the greatest law,the greatest discovery, unfoldment, orrevelation that has ever come into my

experience: nothing can come into youror my experience except through ourown consciousness.

In other words, you consciously broughtyourself to the reading of this book.There are millions of people not readingit and, therefore, not a spark of thismessage has entered their



consciousness, so that they are noteven aware that anything of this sortexists in the world, but even you whoare reading these words could, if you sodesired, shut out of your consciousnessthe message that is being brought toyou. You could sit right where you are,completely unaware of the import ofthese words, reading them with youreyes only, and they would make noimpression upon you; they would notenter the depths, the realm, of yourconsciousness. If you are to benefit bythis message, there must be aresponsive activity within yourconsciousness. Later, as you go deeper

into the study of The Infinite Way, youwill discover how you have admitted theinharmonies and the discords of life intoyour experience through your ownconsciousness and how you caneliminate them after they are there orhow you can prevent their taking rootthere, because nothing can transpire inyour experience except as an activity ofyour own consciousness.

Although you and I are one with God,although we are one with our Source,one with the Fount of everlasting life,one with the Source of infiniteabundance, these can come into ourexperience only through our acceptanceof them in our own consciousness. Inother words, when we begin to declare

within ourselves that there is a Sourceof life, then it must be true that thatSource forever governs Its creation andforever maintains and sustains thatwhich It has brought forth intoexpression.

And so from the moment that weconsciously perceive that we are always

in the bosom of our Father and alwaysone with our Source, indivisible andinseparable from that Source, itbecomes clear to us that all that isflowing forth from that Life -stream, allthat emanates from that infinite Source,is pouring Itself into, through, and fromour individual consciousness.

Gaining the Consciousnessof the Presence

As we abide in this, that is, if we abidein this Word, if we let this Word abide inus, we shall bear fruit richly. The secretof the spiritual life is to recognize

consciously—consciously realize,accept, and declare our oneness withour infinite, immortal, eternal Source,and accept the scriptural statement thatall that the Father has is ours and thatthe place whereon we stand is holyground. Not only must we accept it, butwe must abide in it every single day ofthe week, bringing to consciousremembrance the truth:

"I and my Father are one." I am one withmy Source, and all that is flowing forthfrom God is flowing into my experience.

When we perceive that this is true andare willing to make it a part of ourconscious experience, we are engagingin a form of contemplative meditation.This contemplative meditation, whichshould take place either before we getout of bed in the morning or a fewmoments later, might begin with aconscious remembrance of the invisiblePresence and Power operating in thisuniverse.



How did this day come to be? Surely,there must be a tremendous Force,Power, Being, or Presence, which hasbrought forth the sunlight, the rain, orthe snow of this day. There is aSomething operating invisibly in thisuniverse, sending forth all this glory intoexpression, a glory of which I am a part,for I, too, have been sent intoexpression by That which sent forth theflowers and the trees, the birds, and allthat is.

I am one with all life. And just as thisinvisible Force is pouring sunshine intothe room, so it is pouring life and being

into me, and through me: intelligence,wisdom, guidance, direction, love, care,and protection. All of these are flowingin and through me from the infiniteinvisible Source.

And so we go through this period ofcontemplative meditation at least threeor four times a day, each time takingsome other subject. For the moment,however, we are considering our majortheme, which is that we are consciouslyone with God; we are consciously onewith our Creator. We are consciouslyone with the Source of life, but until wemake it a conscious activity, until weconsciously realize that we are one withour Source, that we are inseparable andindivisible from infinity and eternality,

and that all these qualities and activitiesare pouring themselves through us—until we consciously do this we are notexperiencing that which is our birthright.We are children of God, and as childrenheirs to all the heavenly riches. But letus not think that we are going to comeinto our heritage without consciously

bringing our heritage into expression. Ithas to be a conscious activity.

Whatever of harmony, joy, or success isto come into our experience must first ofall be brought there through someconscious activity of our mind or througha conscious activity of a meditativenature. Some day, the Western worldwill understand this subject ofmeditation better than it does today, andeven the Eastern countries will haverestored to them the knowledge ofmeditation which has largely been lost inthat part of the world. It is not that thoseof the East have not meditated, but,

because they have not known the realsecret of meditation, they have notmeditated correctly, even though it is inthe East that meditation was discoveredand has been practiced most widely.With the loss of the art of meditationcomes the loss of all that is reallyworthwhile in life, because this lack ofcommunion with the Father removes usfrom that conscious oneness with ourinfinite Source, and when that happens,we are no longer one with our good.

It takes only a very few weeks ofdevoting a few moments a day to a quietmeditation in which we recognize ouroneness with the Source and realizethat our oneness with that Sourceconstitutes our oneness with all our

good before we begin to perceive in ourouter and daily experience the fruitageof that meditation.

Every moment of meditation rewards usrichly. Far more will come forth from itthan we put into it. On the other hand,nothing will come forth except what wedo put into it. For example, the presence



of God is closer to us than our ownbreathing, and this has always beentrue. If we try to visualize somethingcloser than our own breathing, we shallunderstand that actually the verypresence of God is where we are. Whenwe are in the depths of disease, sin, orlack, at that very second, the presenceof God is as available to us as it was toMoses when he was leading theHebrews out of slavery, or as it was toElijah when he was finding cakes bakedon the stones or a widow supplying himwith food. The presence of God is aspresent with us as it was with JesusChrist when he healed the sick or when

he multiplied the loaves and fishes orforgave sinners, but even so, thatpresence of God may be doingabsolutely nothing for us because theresponsibility for bringing it into activeexpression in our lives rests with us.

The presence of God is on the gallows;the presence of God is on the battlefrontwhere death and destruction areimminent; the presence of God is whereevery accident occurs anywhere in theworld. The presence of God is in allthose places and circumstances, but thepresence of God is of no avail to anyoneexcept to those who are dwelling in theconscious awareness of this truth. Wemust abide from morning to night andnight to morning in this realization:

Where I am, God is. The presence ofGod is closer to me than breathing; Iand my Father are inseparable andindivisible because we are one. If Imount up to heaven, I will find God, notthat I will find God in heaven, but I willtake God up to heaven. If I make mybed in hell, I will find God, not because

God is in hell, but because I will takeGod with me; and if I walk through thevalley of the shadow of death, I will findGod because where I am, God is, andwhere God is, I am: we are inseparablyand indivisibly one.

Those who abide in this realizationconsciously find that when any form ofevil comes into their experience, itdissolves and disappears. This is thesecret of the mystical life; this is thesecret of the spiritual life. It is allembodied in the one word consciously.Those who consciously know the truth

are those who experience truth becausetruth is present, whether or not theyknow it. Two times two is four, even inthe presence of those who do not knowit; but to be of any benefit, two times twomust be consciously known.

Gratitude and the Contemplative Life

Gratitude is one of the most powerfulforces in the life of any individualbecause it is one of the many facets oflove. If we understand the nature ofgratitude, we shall find that it will play afar greater part in our experience thanwe can possibly realize. The mistake ofmost of the people in the world is thatthey are grateful for the good thatcomes to them. They are grateful for the

bread on their table. They say grace,little realizing how much time they arewasting as long as their grace is only agratitude for the bread on their owntable.

Gratitude has nothing to do withgratefulness for the good that comes tous. Like everything else in the spiritual



life, God is not only universal, butimpersonal, in the sense that God is norespecter of persons and never has sentanything to you or to me or givenanything to you or to me. All that Godhas is ours, but if we were to claim thatfor ourselves alone, we would perhapslose it. When I say, "All that the Fatherhas is mine," I mean that that sameallness is yours and everyone else's.The fact that all the people in the worldare not recipients of that good isbecause of their unawareness -- theirlack of conscious recognition—of thistruth.

In other words, be assured that God hasnever singled out Joel or anyone else towhom to give anything: not even themessage of The Infinite Way. TheInfinite Way is an activity ofconsciousness, and anyone who openshis consciousness to it can experienceit, because God is no respecter ofpersons. God does not set a table foryou or for me; God has set a table forthis whole universe. God has not putanyone's name tag on the cattle on athousand hills, the crops in the ground,the pearls in the sea, or the diamonds inthe earth. God has not put anyone'sname on anything that He has given tothis universe: God has expressedHimself universally; God has shownforth His glory universally.

The moment we begin to be grateful justfor the fact that God is in His heaven,our lives begin to change. Therefore, letus stop thinking in terms of "me" and"mine" and begin to be grateful for allthe good that God has provided in thisuniverse: grateful that crops are in theground and that the bowels of the earth

are filled with His riches, rejoicing in theuniversality of God's good, rejoicing andbeing grateful for the riches that areupon the face of this earth, rejoicing thateveryone who opens his consciousnessto them receives them, not becauseGod sends these things to him but

because God sends them out into theworld as His presence made manifest.

The presence of God appears as food,clothing, housing, and raiment. All thatis, is the presence of God mademanifest, and when we begin to expressgratitude for the presence of God

appearing as the good in this world, oursouls, our minds, and our hearts arefilled with love. When we personalizeand believe that for some reason Godhas given to one person and iswithholding from another, we dishonorGod.

Let it be clear, then, that to ourmeditation and our practicing of thePresence, we must add the all-importantingredient of gratitude. As we walk in thepark, let us be grateful for all the beautythat is on every hand to gladden theheart. If we look up into the sky whenthe stars are shining, let us be gratefulthat they are there but let us be equallycareful not to claim the stars for ourown!

What concerned me in my earlier yearswas that so much of God's abundanceand love were in evidence and yet thatthere was so much of poverty, sin, anddisease among men. And for me, theburning question was why this was true,and how it could be eliminated. Theanswer that came was that only through



our conscious awareness andacceptance of God's grace, throughconsciously living in the realization ofGod's presence could those things thatdo not belong in our experience beeliminated and be replaced by thosethings that are ours by divine right.

For this reason, the two booksPracticing the Presence and The Art ofMeditation have been provided as thefoundational studies in our workbecause all our work must necessarilybe founded on the ability to meditateconsciously and to practice consciouslythe presence of God until we reach the

point where we never go to sleep atnight without God in our thought, norawaken in the morning without God asour first thought. We go forth from ourhome with God in our thought. We liveconstantly with God in our thought.

This is the way, then, that the blessingsof God reach man: through an activity ofour own consciousness, through ourconsciously knowing the truth andpraying without ceasing. And theseblessings are all by-products of the onegreat goal of conscious awareness ofthe presence of God.

ACROSS THE DESK

Everything visible, audible, touchable,smellable, and thinkable is the externalexpression of something in the realm ofthe real—even the superstitions, myths,and so-called pagan practices.

As visitors from the Occident go to theOrient and observe the unusually largenumber of temples, shrines, religiousstatues, and prayer groups, they often

speak of these as the paganism of theOrient. When they return home and inthe churches on nearly every corner ofevery town find even a greater numberof prayer groups, many stained glasswindows, religious figures, and statuesof Jesus in different forms and positionsfrom that of prayer to crucifixion, statuesand paintings of saints and sages, Iwonder how many of them perceive thatall these outward symbols stem from thesame source.

Let us be very clear on this point:Behind all the seemingly paganisticpractices of the East and the West,

there is spiritual truth. First of all, thevery existence of a prayer group in achurch, temple, or garden is anacknowledgment of a supreme Being orDeity. Whether sitting, standing, or onthe knees, through prayer oneacknowledges a divine Presence. Onthis point both East and West are inagreement.

The statues and carvings of religiousleaders in the East are a recognition ofthose whose lives have revealed theirattainment of some measure of divineconsciousness. The paintings, thestained glass, and the figures inWestern churches are but therecognition of the attained measure ofspiritual light of the Western Savior, his

disciples and apostles, and of otherreligious lights. Here, too, the East andthe West are in agreement, and rightlyso, because all religious symbolism inritual, rite, or ceremony is the attempt touse such means to attain an elevatedstate of consciousness.



Behind all forms of worship, it must berecognized that there is a divine, infinite,universal principle of law, life, or being,and in such recognition it becomes clearthat the Lord He is One . To thediscerning person there is, therefore, nopaganism in any religion, and no onecan correctly claim that there is a rightor a wrong religion. The paganism existsin the form of men's worship and in theirdiffering beliefs about religion. Forexample, to believe that man caninfluence God by words, thoughts, ordeeds is a form of paganism; whereasto realize God as Omniscience,Omnipotence, and Omnipresence is

true religious worship.

To believe that God has finite form,emotions, or responses is a form ofpaganism; whereas to understand Godas the Life, Law, Being, Substance, andActivity of all spiritual form is trueworship. To tell God, to advise, inform,or beseech God is a form of paganism;whereas to love and trust God and tolisten for His voice is the higher worship.

To have an inner experience of the outerforms of worship such as is carried on inchurch services or in celebratingreligious holidays, feast or fast days, istrue worship, and the true worshiper canparticipate in the services of the Hebrewsynagogue, the Protestant or Catholic

church, or the Moslem or Buddhisttemple with equal devotion, becausebehind this worship, whatever its form,he recognizes and acknowledges theOne "appearing as many."

With equal dedication, I have spoken toChristian groups and non-Christiangroups in the Orient, and all of them

have listened to me with equal interestand attention. Thus, The Infinite Waybears witness to the divine Spirit in man,the divine Spark which is without race,religion, nationality, creed, or politicalaffiliation, yet is the one animatingPrinciple, Life, Soul, and Spirit of all. Inthis oneness, there is a spiritual bonduniting us in His grace.

T W OErasing Our Concepts ofGod, Prayer, and Grace

Religion is an individual experience, andnot only is it impossible to go intoheaven two by two or four by four, buteven any attempt to do so must result infailure.

If a person is interested in a spiritualway of life, in seeking the realm of Godor finding a solution to human problems,it is necessary that that person embark

on his mission alone. This does notmean that if one's husband or wife alsowishes to set forth on such a mission heor she should not do so, but because ofthe very nature of this search, each onemust find his way within himself, alone.No two people can progress at thesame rate because no two people are atthe same level of consciousness; andtherefore, the religious life is one whichmust be lived within the individual,regardless of how much is sharedoutwardly. No one can achieve this lifefor another: each must achieve it forhimself.

In the writings and recordings of TheInfinite Way is found the account of myown search for God: the mode, the



means, and the achievement. This hasbeen set forth merely to show what oneindividual has achieved, and thesebooks and recordings are offered to youin the hope that you will read, study, orhear them, and put them into practice;and, insofar as they prove successful,live with them and through them.

In a few brief years, many thousandswho have followed the particular wayknown as The Infinite Way have, in ameasure, found their peace, theirharmony, safety, security, and theirsupply. In reading and studying TheInfinite Way, however, you are in no

sense bound to it. You are, at all times,a free spiritual agent, free to come to usor to any of our students who are activein the work, but just as free at any timenot to come always free to find your ownway. You have no obligations; you haveno embarrassments; and if The InfiniteWay does not prove effective in yourindividual case, you are at liberty alwaysto seek further until you do find theparticular teaching which is yours.

You are under no obligation to me or tothe message of The Infinite Way. Thereis nothing you can join, so there are nomemberships or ties to dissolve. Come,enjoy, eat, drink, be satisfied, but leteach one of us maintain his onenesswith God. In such a way lies true

freedom, true liberty, and the obligationeach one has is to his Maker and not toany man. What a satisfying thing that isto remember!

Day and night and night and day, I oweno man anything but to love him. Mysole obligation is to love my God and myfellow man. There is no way of

expressing the joy and the freedom thisgives all of us; there is no way ofexplaining what takes place in theconsciousness of an individual whoknows that he is free in God.

When people come together in largegroups, there is a tendency to rely onthat togetherness, or that union, for theirdemonstration of peace, harmony, andsecurity, and they thereby lose. The ideathat in union there is strength has beendrilled into people from infancy, but thisis not true, except in the spiritual senseof union with God, not union with oneanother.

Couples have married, believing that insuch union would be their strength andlater have found that each had to findhis or her strength individually thatstrength could not be found collectively.Nations have united, but these unionshave usually lasted only as long as theyhave not interfered with or jeopardizedthe selfish aims and ambitions of theparties involved.

When people unite humanly for thepurpose of finding safety, security,peace, harmony, or health, they mustfail because the only way to achievethese is in the degree of their onenesswith God, consciously realized—theironeness with their Source. That is

something that no one can do foranother. Each must achieve this forhimself.

No Theory or Concept of God Is God

There is a difficulty in embarking on aspiritual way of life, and one whicheveryone has to surmount if he is to



remain on the spiritual path. Thatdifficulty concerns itself with threewords, but once you are able to riseabove the limitations of those threewords, you will find that the spiritualpath is much easier than you had everbelieved it could be, and much more

joyous and fruitful. For a time, however,

the struggle lies in these three words,the first of which is God—G-o-d.

The hardest part of your spiritual journeyis to rise above the concepts of God thatyou have always accepted. Whetheryour concept of God has come from a

church, from your parents, or from yourown experiences in life regardless ofwhere or how you acquired yourparticular concept of God andregardless of what that concept may beit is not God.

There is nothing that you know aboutGod that is God. There is no idea ofGod that you can entertain that is God.There is no possible thought that youcan have about God that is God. Itmakes no difference what your idea maybe or what your concept may be, itremains an idea or a concept, and anidea or a concept is not God. And soevery student must eventually realizethat he has to rise above all hisconcepts of God before he can have an

experience of God.

Regardless of the concept of Godentertained, whether Hebrew,Protestant, Catholic, or Oriental, it hasdone very little for the world. This worldis in a sad plight, and every knownconcept of God has failed to bringpeace on earth not only collectively, but

individually.

The world is in a state of unrestbecause of fear of aggression on thepart of Russia and China or because ofthe upheaval in Africa. The threat toworld peace arising out of the situationin these areas would not of itself be tooupsetting to anyone, except for the factthat very few persons have withinthemselves that which makes themindependent of world conditions. Inother words, they have no assurancewithin themselves that there is a Godwho can and will lift them out of theseworld problems and show them how to

surmount them.

Just in one generation, there have beenthree major wars, and neither theHebrew, the Protestant, the Catholic,nor the Oriental God has stopped thesewars or their horrors. They never endeduntil one or the other of the combatantshad nothing left with which to fight.

For the most part, men feel that theyhave nothing within themselves that cangive them any assurance that,regardless of human conditions, theevils of war, poverty, or disease will notcome nigh their dwelling place. Theanswer to all this is that whateverconcept of God a person may entertainor however correct that concept may be,

it still will not give him freedom, peace,safety, or security. Only one thing willbring these things to an individual, andultimately to the world, and that onething is the God experience: not atheory about God, not a concept of God,not an idea of God, but a Godexperience!



For nearly two thousand years, religionhas eliminated that factor from itsteaching. It has given the worldeverything but the God experience: ithas given it noble ideas; it has given itgreat ideas of philanthropy and charity;it has given it great beauty in music, art,and literature—everything, in fact,except God. But we could well dispensewith all that religion has given us, if onlyit would give us God. We can livewithout all these other things, if only wecan have God.

The attainment of God is an individualexperience and cannot be given to a

group of individuals, although it may begiven to many individuals in a group. Itis possible at a given time for a dozenpersons in a group to realize God, butthey will not receive that realization as agroup. Each one receives it individuallyby his own preparedness for it, by hisown devotion to the attainment of Godrealization.

Healing Comes Through in a Momentof God-Realization

Those of you who, in the capacity ofpractitioner or teacher, have been themeans of spiritual healing for others arewell aware of the fact that you do notknow how to heal and that you have nohealing powers or capacities. You know,better than anyone else, that the Masterwas right when he said, "I can of mineown self do nothing," that he spoke trulywhen he said, "If I bear witness ofmyself, my witness is not true," becauseyou have found that the only time youhave been responsible for healings hasbeen when, in some measure, in yourmeditation or treatment, you have

actually felt a Presence or a releasefrom fear, which could not have comeexcept by the grace of God. Only whenyou attained a certain level ofconsciousness, a very specific level ofconsciousness, in which you eitherrealized God's presence or realized theabsolute nothingness of anything that

was not ordained of God, have you everbeen able to bring forth healing.

To those of you who have experiencedhealings through a practitioner orteacher of the metaphysical or spiritualworld, let me say that the healing did not

take place because God was favoringthat practitioner or teacher andconferring upon him special healingpowers. The healing had nothing to dowith anything of this sort. It had to dowith the fact that the one to whom youturned was able to catch a glimpse ofthe God presence or power, of thespiritual nature of creation, or arealization of the nonpower of anythingand everything that does not emanatefrom God. It is in such moments ofrealization that healing comes through.

So it is that those who expect only to behealed should, of course, in somedegree try to realize the nature of God,but those of you who engage in anactive healing ministry must understand

that all your knowledge of truth is of novalue when the chips are down. In otherwords, when you are faced with aperson threatened with death or with anincurable disease, do not rely on thewisdom or on the statements of truthyou have read or learned in books orlessons. Rather understand that unlessyou realize and feel God's presence, or



unless you actually feel the nothingnessof that which is presenting itself as theappearance, the healing will not takeplace.

Statements of truth and learning thecorrect letter of truth are necessarysteps in our progress, of course,because it is in this way that the healingconsciousness is attained, but too muchattention is usually given to statementsof truth and not enough to the actualexperience of truth.

Prayers That Seek Favors of GodAre Futile

The concept of God that most personsentertain is that God is a great powerand that God can overcome all negativeand erroneous powers, that God canheal disease, that God could, if Hewould, stop a war or prevent accidents.None of this is true; none of this is true!

And that brings us to the second word,the second stumbling block in ourprogress, the word prayer. As long asmen and women pray to God to heal thesick, to give them supply, or to bringpeace on earth, they are just playingaround with marbles. They are not evenseriously approaching the subject ofspiritual living. Rather are they back inpaganistic days, praying those ancientprayers of "O God! Destroy my enemy";"O God! Give me success in battle"; "0God! Save our side be with us." All ofthis dates back two, three, four, or fivethousand years to those days whenpeople thought of God as some kind ofsuperman who sat high up on a throneand could be prevailed upon to destroytheir enemies and, at the same time,

give them success. Why success tothem and not to their enemies?

Similarly, prayers were uttered: "Give usrain"; or, "Stop this too much rain"; "Giveus crops"; "Let us have more abundantfish in our nets"; "Make the game moreplentiful." Prayer of this sort belongs tothose pagan days in which the conceptof God was that of some kind ofsuperbeing who was sitting aroundwaiting to be persuaded to grant favors.

Such prayers were not effective then,and they have not been effective duringthe past two thousand years in which

they have been perpetuated by thechurches. But the world continues touse these outmoded forms of prayerand to live with outmoded concepts ofGod for much the same reason thatcontemporaries of ChristopherColumbus, once they had gone onrecord publicly as having accepted asquare world, found it difficult toacknowledge that after all perhapsColumbus was right, and the world wasround. In spite of knowledge to thecontrary, they insisted on clinging totheir square world. And so it is that oncepeople have come out publicly anddeclared that it is right and proper topray to God to destroy their enemies orto pray to God for bread, meat, wine,and water, it is a very difficult thing for

them to admit that they were wrong.

One day it will be recognized that in thistwentieth century an era has begun inwhich concepts of God and prayer willhave to be reexamined universally aswell as individually. There are manyplaces around the globe in which it is



evident that a beginning in this directionhas been made.

But we are dealing now only with youand with me as individuals, and if weexpect to enter this spiritual path, it mustbe done by recognizing that God is notSanta Claus, and Santa Claus is notGod. God is not withholding anythingthat you could pray for. God has nothingto give you that God is not, at thismoment, giving. The God whosekingdom is within you already knowsyour need, and it is His good pleasure togive you that Kingdom.

Therefore, the first step on the spiritualpath is to acknowledge that you neednot pray to God in the sense of telling orasking God for what you need becauseGod is an all knowing God, an infiniteWisdom that already knows all that is tobe known, and that God is divine love,whose nature it is to give you theKingdom.

The Is-ness of God

You cannot know what God is becauseno one in the history of the world hasever been able to embrace God bymeans of his human mentality. KingSolomon said that his entire Temple wasnot big enough to hold God, and youmay be assured that the mind of man isnot capable of embracing God. So, it isuseless to try to ask what God is.Rather acknowledge that Godis.

Acknowledge that as you have lookedout upon this universe and witnessedthe orderly movement of the sun, themoon, the stars, and the tides, and the

unfailing rotation of the seasons, as youhave witnessed the divine order in appletrees producing apples and rosebushesproducing roses, you must admit thatthere is a Cause that operates throughlaw and through love.

When you have acknowledged that thisuniverse has a creative Principle, aCause, a Something that sent it intoexpression and form and that maintainsthat expression, this relieves you,individually, of all responsibility. Itenables you to relax and realize thatthat which sent you into expressionmust likewise be that which maintains

and sustains you and all mankind.

Once you have acknowledged that Godis, and that God is that which functionsas Law, as Love, and as the creative,maintaining, and sustaining Principle,you have set yourself free of allconcepts of God and you can rest inthat acknowledgment. You can restassured that that which is maintainingthe integrity of all nature can maintainthe integrity of your and my individuallife.

The Prayer of Acknowledgment

By this time, you will have begun towonder, "What has happened to thekind of prayers I used to pray?" and youwill realize that they have dropped awayfrom you. Now you will know that youracknowledgment of God as the creativeand maintaining Principle is about ashigh a form of prayer as man canconceive of in the realm of words orthoughts, In other words, toacknowledge that there is an infiniteSomething, even though invisible, to



acknowledge Its qualities of intelligence,law, and love, and to acknowledge Itspower as the sustaining influence, this isprayer: this is the prayer ofacknowledgment.

"In all thy ways acknowledge him, andhe shall direct thy paths." Acknowledgethis, and eventually you will be elevatedto a state of consciousness in which youwill pray without words and withoutthoughts, because after you havereceived this conviction of a Divinity, of adivine Presence, Power, Law, and Love,there are no more words. You have nowords to address to It, but rather you

have come to realize that God,whatever Its nature or being, can speakto you, reveal Itself to you, and bringyou an assurance of Its presence, Itspower, Its jurisdiction and government inall things.

When you become receptive to that Godwhose Kingdom is within, you will arriveat a point of recognition:

The kingdom of God is within me. I donot have to go to holy mountains; I donot have to go to holy temples or holycities because the place whereon Istand is holy ground.

With that assurance, you can then turnquietly within and realize:

"Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.” Iknow now that it would be folly forhuman wisdom to try to instruct theDivine. I know now that it would be follyto ask God for anything, as if God werewithholding from me.

I know now that I need only be receptiveand responsive to God's grace, that Ineed only turn within and wait and bepatient, and the presence of God willannounce Itself, and when He utters Hisvoice, the earth melts. When I hear thestill small voice, the discords of humansense dissolve.

I know now that "I can of mine own selfdo nothing." I it is only as I can bringforth the presence and the power ofGod through my consciousness andrelease it into this world that it ispossible to say to the storm, as did theMaster, "Peace, be still.. . . . It is I; be

not afraid."

Regardless of the pictures that presentthemselves to you the sins, the lack,limitations, injustices, and inequalitiesyou do not fight them. You do not prayto a god to do something about them,but you turn within in the realization thatthe presence of God is within you, andin that quietness and stillness, you hear:" 'I will never leave thee, nor forsakethee.' As / was with Moses, withAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, so /am with you. / will be with you unto theend of the world."

In one way or another, you will reach aninner confidence that you are not alonein this world, that you are not battling

your problems alone, but that it isliterally true that He that is within you isgreater than He that is in the world andthat He performs whatever is given youto do.

These statements as mere statementswill do nothing for you except to serveas reminders of the truth that really is.



There is a He within you that is greaterthan all the problems that are in theworld. There is a He that actuallyperforms all that is given you to do.Scriptural or inspirational passagesmerely give you the confidence tobecome still and let that He come intoexpression, let that He bring you theassurance:

It is I; be not afraid. • • • I will neverleave thee." I will be with thee. I will gobefore thee to make the crooked placesstraight. I go before thee to revealmansions — mansions, mansions. I am

the way rest. I am the truth rest.

Do not struggle for what you shall eat,or what you shall drink, or wherewithalyou shall be clothed, for I am your meat,your wine, and your water.

Eventually, you will understand that yourprayers have not been answeredbecause you have been expecting Godto send you health, and this cannot be.God is the only health there is, and theonly way to have health is to have God.God is the health of your countenance;therefore, have God, and you will havehealth. God is your meat, your bread,your wine, your water; therefore, Godcannot give you these and God cannotsend you these. God is these, and the

only way that you can permanently andabundantly have bread, meat, wine, andwater is to have God.

It is useless to pray to God for longerlife, for God cannot give it to you. God islife, and only in having God do you havelife. Without God, there is no life, for

God is life. And to know this truth is lifeeternal.

Do not even pray to God for safety or forsecurity, for God has none to give you:God is the fortress, and God is the hightower, and if you want safety andsecurity, have God. When you are inGod, and God is in you, you will have noneed of concrete shelters; you will haveno need of swords, nor will you havefear of anyone else's swords. Noindividual who has ever had theassurance of God's presence ever fearsdeath, ever fears bombs or bulletsbecause with the realization of God's

presence comes the conviction: Neitherlife nor death can separate me fromGod.

Neither life nor death can separate mefrom the love and the care of God.Neither life nor death can separate mefrom God's life, God's supply, God'sSoul, God's law, God's love; andtherefore, I need not concern myselfwith whether my status is life or death,because either way I am in God. Godcan never leave me, nor forsake me;God is with me to the end of the worldbecause God and I are one, inseparableand indivisible.

Preparing the Soilfor Spiritual Fruitage

This assurance cannot be given to usfrom a book, even though we may readcomforting passages there; and thisassurance cannot even be given to usby a man, even though we may hearhim speak words of faith and trust. Thisassurance must come welling up in usfrom within ourselves. That is what I



mean by preparation. Those of us whoare devoting some part of our day andnight to God realization are preparingourselves for this very revelation orassurance that inevitably comes fromwithin. Paul told us that as creatures,that is, as human beings, we are notunder the law of God, neither indeedcan be. It is only as we prepareourselves that this inner confidence andconviction eventually dawn.

The Master gave it to us this way: thereare three types of soil: the barren soil,the rocky, and the fertile. As humanbeings, we are the barren soil, entirely

separate and apart from God, and Godhas no way at all of announcing Himselfwithin us; there is no way for therevelation of God to come to us.

After we have started out on our spiritualpath, it is not long before we find that wehave become stony soil. In other words,we do have realizations of truthoccasionally; we have revelations anddemonstrations; we have a glimpse ofsomething, and then it is gone from us.It does not remain with us too long. Wehave a demonstration of harmony, andthen all of a sudden that seems to be farin the past. But as we continue to abidein the Word and let the Word abide inus, as we continue to seek for deeperand deeper revelations and realizations

of God and prayer, eventually we findthat we are becoming more fertile soil,and the seed of truth can now take rootin us.

Every word of truth that we read, everyword of truth that we hear, every word oftruth that we declare is a seed of truth,and the further we go in our study and

meditations, the more fertile ourconsciousness becomes and the moreof these seeds will take root and bearfruit.

We all go through much the sameexperience—everyone in the past hasgone through these same experiences

—but eventually we all come to therealization that to know Him aright is lifeeternal. This, I would call the greatestrevelation ever given to man: To knowHim aright is life eternal: lifeharmonious, life perfect.

But let us understand what it means to

know Him aright. To know Him arightmeans to drop every concept we haveever had. The Master said that wecannot fill vessels already full; we haveto empty out the vessel, come with aperfectly clear and cleanconsciousness, and begin all overagain.

When our prayer is, "Father, revealThyself," we should remember that weare speaking to a Father that is alreadywithin us, not a Father that we have togo out and seek, not a God that is afaroff. We are beginning with therealization that what we are seeking isalready within us. Therefore, we can doour praying, whether we are atbusiness, or doing housework; we can

do our praying or our knowing of thetruth, whether we are walking, driving acar, or riding in a bus. We can literallypray without ceasing, becauseregardless of the activity in which wemay be engaged, there is always roomin our consciousness for aremembrance, for a realization, of Godwithin us.



The Universality of God's Grace

There is a third word about which thereare many misconceptions, and that isthe word grace. God's grace is not givento some and withheld from others. God'sgrace is free to everyone.

God's grace is within us, and it isoperating within us, needing only to berecognized.

What stops us from receiving God'sgrace is that while once a week we maysay with our lips, "Thy grace is my

sufficiency in all things," ninety-nineother times during the week we plead,"Give me food; give me clothing; giveme housing; give me employment; giveme companionship." Ninety-nine timesout of a hundred, we deny the truth thatwe utter the one time; whereas thewhole one hundred times we shouldrefrain from desiring anything from God,putting our entire hope in this truth:

Thy grace is my sufficiency in all things,and Thy grace is operative andoperating now.

It will help to remember that when itrains it does not rain exclusively for theJones family, the Browns, or the Smiths.When it rains, it just rains. When it

snows, it snows; when it is warm, it iswarm; and when God is passing outfood, clothing, housing, raiment,companionship, and money, it is not forJones, Brown, or Smith: it is universal.

God's grace is universally available. Aslong as we do not personalize it andexpect God to give or send it to us, we

will have His grace infinitely andeternally. It is only when we begin tolocalize it and ask God to let it rain inour garden that we are likely to find thatit misses our garden. God's grace isuniversal, and God's grace is oursufficiency. God's grace governs theuniverse, but God's grace is notaddressed to anyone except to the Sonof God, which you are and which I am.Let us have no addresses to whichGod's grace is to be sent because Godis not interested in one person morethan in another.

Let us revise our concepts of prayer

and, above all things, let us realize thatwe cannot pray for something forourselves, for our child, or for ourparents. Our prayer has to be arealization of the omnipresence of God,omnipresent in Russia and Africa andthe United States. The omnipresence ofGod —the omnipotence of God theomniscience of God universal,impersonal, impartial! Once we begin topray this kind of prayer, we shall beginto experience answered prayer.

God's grace cannot be directed intospecific channels; God's grace cannotbe directed to certain persons: God'sgrace already is operating universally,and what brings it into our experience isour acknowledgment and realization of

its universality. As we begin tounderstand the universal nature ofGod's grace, God's love, and God'swisdom, and stop attempting to channelit, we shall begin to perceive that we,ourselves, are inside God's grace, andthe beneficiary of it.



ACROSS THE DESK

Grace is God's gift of Himself; Grace isomnipresence: it is the impartation ofGod to an individual in realization, butthe realization of God constitutes thereceptivity to Grace. God's gift of graceis never a thing or a condition, butalways the fullness of God, although ourlimited state of receptivity may make itappear as a specific healing as supplyor release from some form of bondage.If God's grace appears in limited form, itis usually because we are seeking somespecific good. When we rightlyunderstand The Infinite Way, we seek

the realization of the fullness of God thefulfillment of God.

In turning within daily for theacknowledgment and awareness ofGod's presence, the effect of God'sgrace soon becomes apparent as theappearing of the activity and forms ofgood in our experience. The desire forspecific gifts of God must besurrendered in the greater love for God,which is satisfied with nothing less thanHimself. Our lives cannot be completeuntil we have received the Grace of Hispresence. Then we live constantlytabernacled with Him, in continuouscommunion with His life and His love.

Men seek many freedoms: freedomfrom false appetites, from disease, fromlack, and from unhappy humanrelationships, but instead of seekingfreedom from these limiting conditions,they should rather seek freedom in HisSpirit because freedom is attained byHis grace by the attainment of Hispresence. If the desire for His grace isstrong enough, the struggle for these

freedoms can be given up and therebyreal freedom attained.

In our morning meditation, we canconsciously remember: "I will neverleave thee, nor forsake thee"; and in ourevening meditation, "Lo, I am with youalway, even unto the end of the world."And throughout the day, as the pressureof living pushes down upon us, we caninwardly sing: "I am come that theymight have life, and that they mighthave it more abundantly." We can pauseat each meal to remember inwardly: Thygrace is my sufficiency in all things.Whenever any sense of bondage tries

to tempt us, we can rejoice that "Wherethe Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

The main concern of the world today iswith reports of repeated threats to everykind of freedom political, religious, andeconomic —yet none of these evils shall"come nigh our dwelling," if we dwellconsciously in the realization of Hispresence.

To bring to fruition the dawning inconsciousness of His grace, we mustremember the major principle of life:There is but one Power, and this Poweris within us. There is no externalpower to act upon us or our affairs for allpower is spiritual, and its kingdom, itsrealm, is within us. Thou, Pilate of any

name or nature—can have no powerexcept that which is of God.

Fear not I am with you.



T H R E EBeginning the

Contemplative Life

In the Orient, as many of you know,those who are interested in attainingspiritual illumination go to a teacher and,as a rule, live with or near the teacherfor a period of six, seven, or eight years,and by means of meditation with as wellas without the teacher, meditation withother students, and spiritual instruction,eventually attain their illumination:satori, enlightenment, or the fourthdimensional consciousness.

Mankind as a whole, however, is notgeared for this kind of teaching, nor domany desire, need, or even have thecapacity for full enlightenment. This isattested by the fact that some studentsand disciples who have lived in closeassociation with their teachers even for

many years could not or did not reachthe heights, whereas others may havereceived it in two or three years.

The question, then, for the youngstudent at first is not one of attainingthat degree of illumination which wouldset him up as a spiritual teacher orhealer, but primarily how to attainsufficient illumination or enlightenmentto be able to free himself from thediscords and inharmonies of daily livingand build up within himself a spiritualsense that would not only lift him abovethe world's troubles his family orcommunity troubles—but would enablehim to live a normal family, business, orprofessional life, and yet be inspired,

fed, and supported by an innerexperience and contact.

Recognize the Universality of God

It is well known that all people of areligious turn of mind whatever theirreligion may be—can attain somemeasure of inner harmony and peaceand find themselves in possession of aninner grace that eventually lives theirlives for them. It makes no differencewhat a person's religion is becausethere is only one God, only one Spirit;and that Spirit knows no differencebetween a Jew and a Gentile, a

Protestant and a Catholic, an Orientaland an Occidental. The Spirit is beyondand above any denominational beliefs orconvictions, free to all and independentof ceremonies, rites, creeds, or formsfor Its worship, just as the life thatpermeates a blade of grass is the samelife that permeates an orchid, a daisy, ora violet. The Spirit recognizes nodifference. The same Life animates alllife, whether that of a mongrel dog or apedigreed one.

In Scripture, we are told that His rainfalls on the just and the unjust. As far asGod is concerned, there is neitherGreek nor Jew, neither bond nor free.The Master made that very clear whenhe said, "Call no man your father uponthe earth for one is your Father, which isin heaven." If Jesus had meant that thisapplied only to the people who werelistening to him, then, of course,according to that, God is the Father onlyof the Hebrews because Jesus wastalking to his fellow Hebrews. In his daythere was no Christian church, nor werethere any Christians: there were only



Jews, and Jesus was one of them, arabbi in their midst; and if he hadintended these words only for those towhom he was speaking, we would haveto admit, then, that the Jews are theonly ones who can claim God as theirFather.

As a matter of fact, however, anyonewith even a smattering of spiritualinsight knows from the import of Jesus'teaching that he was not speaking toany one group. What he was a doingwas voicing truth, just as if he had saidtwo times two is four while speaking ofcabbages, but not meaning that only

two times two cabbages is four, butmeaning two times two is four, whetherapplied to cabbages or kings. And so,when he tells us to "call no man yourfather upon the earth," he is notaddressing you who are reading this,nor was he addressing those who weresitting before him listening to him: hewas speaking to the world, proclaiminga message that had been given to himof God.

Years later, Paul carried that samemessage to the pagans, the Europeanseven to the atheists and always he wasvoicing a spiritual truth which was notmeant to apply to any specific group ofpeople, but was a spiritual truth whichhas always been, is, and always will be

—a universal truth. Therefore, it must bethe truth about Greek and Jew; it mustbe the truth about you and me; it mustbe the truth about white and black: thereis but one Father, but one God.

No person can ever hope for spiritualenlightenment unless he can first of allrecognize that there is only one creative

Principle in this world, whether It createscabbages or kings, whether It createsthe Greek or the Jew. There is only onecreative Principle, and It is located, notin holy mountains, nor yet in the templein Jerusalem. Its location is neither "Lohere! or, Lo there!" but within you, and itmakes no difference who the you maybe. It makes no difference if it is the youin a hospital, the you in a prison, the youin business, or the you in some art orprofession: the kingdom of God is withinyou, and the kingdom of God is a Spiritnot a superhuman being, but a Spirit.

To recognize this truth constitutes thevery first step in attaining spiritual light,the first step in attaining an awarenessof the presence of God. If you cannotaccept this, then you will have to believethat God is a respecter of persons andthat only Jews have the presence ofGod, or only Baptists, or Buddhists. Thisis the rankest kind of nonsense.

The presence of God is within you,whoever the you may be.

Your Givingness of Yourself Bringsthe Givingness of the Universe to You

When you have come to the placewhere you actually feel the truth of this,where you feel the presence of God inthe air, in your body, in your business, inyour home, in your competitor, or in theenemy across the sea or across thestreet when you begin to perceive that,you are ready for the next step whicheveryone must take beforeenlightenment can come, and that is therealization that inasmuch as thekingdom of God is within you, it must be



permitted to flow out from you. It cannotcome to you, and you must, at somestage in your unfoldment, stop lookingfor it to come to you.

An illustration of this can be found in thearea of companionship. Many, manypersons are seeking companionship,but when they come to me with thatproblem, asking for a demonstration ofcompanionship, my reply always is: "It'sno use, because I know you don't wantcompanionship. If I could show you howto attain it, you would refuse it. Whatyou want is a companion, and probablyhe has to be five foot eleven to six feet,

and weigh one hundred eighty pounds,and have nice blue eyes. You have it alldecided in advance. Butcompanionship, you don't want." No onewho ever asks for a demonstration ofcompanionship—not anyone I have everknown has really wanted it. They havemerely wanted a companion, and that Icannot get for anybody.

It is so simple to have companionship.All it requires is that you be acompanion. That's all! Once youbecome a companion, once you findsomething or somebody to companionwith it does not have to be a humanbeing at first, or a member of theopposite sex, or a stranger you havecompanionship. You can begin to find

companionship with some members ofyour own family, or with the birds thatcome to your lawn, or with the stars.The point is that companionship is asharing of one's self. That is whatconstitutes companionship the sharingof one's self. It could be at the level ofneighborliness; it could be at the level offriendliness; it could be at the level of

husband, wife, brother, or sister; butcompanionship means a sharing ofone's self with someone else.

Companionship is always available toyou, because it is within you: it is the giftof God, and you are the one whodetermines whether you will keep itlocked up within you, or whether you willlet it loose and be a companion. And themoment you decide to be a companion,you have companionship.

Of course, the wonderful part of it is thatwhen you begin to be a companion, youfind those who are also desirous of

being companions, of sharing, and thenit is not a question of give and take, it isa question of both giving. There is notaking: there is just giving.

The kingdom of God is locked up withinyou. There is no way for one person todemonstrate supply for another becauseeveryone, everywhere, has all that theFather has —infinity and to try to getsomething out here, when there isnothing out here but space, is folly.Supply is demonstrated, not in thegetting, but in opening out a way for thesupply already within you to flow outfrom its Source, which is the kingdom ofGod within you.

Illumination can come only to those who

realize that the kingdom of God—Light,Truth, Wisdom, Love—is within. All thatthe Father has is yours, and then just asyou have to find a way to expresscompanionship, so do you have to find away to express supply.

This we can do in many ways. TheMaster has indicated in the Sermon on



the Mount that we should give, but besure that no one but God knows aboutour giving; pray, but be sure that no onebut God knows about our praying;forgive; pray for our enemies. All this hegives as an activity that takes placewithin ourselves and flows from withinus to the without.

The entire secret of spiritual illuminationis bound up in the realization that thekingdom of God is within and that wemust find a way to let this "imprisonedsplendor" escape. Therefore, whateverit is we are seeking, we must find a wayto give it out, so that even if we are

seeking spiritual light, the way to gain itis to give it.

Many teachers have discovered that bythe end of the school term, they havelearned more about the subjects theyhave taught through the teaching ofthem than have the pupils in theclassroom, Always a person learnsmore by teaching than anyone everlearns by being taught.

So it is in a spiritual teaching. Thosewho teach learn far more than anystudent or group of students, because inthe very act of giving out, there is aconstant inflow—and really not in: it isonly that the infinite Source is within, butIt cannot flow out if we do not let It out.

The moment we begin letting out a littleof what we know, all the rest begins toflow, more than we ever were aware thatwe knew.

There is no way to gain love from theworld or from the people of the world.Many have tried it, but everyone fails, Itcannot be accomplished. The only way

is the way of spiritual light. By loving, webecome loved. There is no other way.Waiting to be loved is like waiting forsomething to come from the blanknessof space. Before love can flow to us, wefirst must put it out here. We must firstput the bread on the water, before thebread can return to us. Only that whichwe put forth finds its way back to us,because, in and of itself, a blank spacehas nothing to give nothing! But inproportion as we put something out intospace, in that proportion is a way madefor it to find its way back to us, presseddown and running over.

So is the whole goodness and infinity ofthis universe flowing back to us as welet it flow out from us. It is thegivingness of ourselves that brings thegivingness of the universe to us.

Man Cannot Influence God

Spiritual illumination begins with therealization of as simple a thing as thatthe whole kingdom of God is alreadyestablished within you, and for you toenjoy its blessings you have to find away to bring it forth into expression.

As you meditate and ponder on thesethings, you come to a place where thereis nothing more to think about. You havethought it all; you have said it all; youhave declared or affirmed it, and youhave come to the end of all that. Now,since there is not anything more to say,you come to a place where you are still,and you find that in the very momentthat you achieve stillness, something

jumps up here from within you—something of a transcendental nature,something of a not human nature.



Something jumps up into yourawareness that you yourself have notbeen declaring, affirming, or stating, butwhich you are now hearing andreceiving from the depths of yourwithinness. You yourself have createdthe circumstance by means of whichthis transcendental hearing can takeplace: you have known the truth,declared it, felt it, stated it, and thenbeen still, thereby creating a vacuum,and now up into that, the Voiceannounces Itself, bringing with Itillumination.

The first step is always consciouslyknowing the truth, intellectually knowingthe truth, and then, through thisconstant pondering, meditating, andcogitating, you bring yourself to theplace where you are completely still,and into that stillness and up from thatstillness comes the very light that youhave been seeking.

But do you think that that light is givenonly to one person or one group ofpersons? Do you not see how importantit is, first, to divest yourself of every bitof belief that God is a respecter ofpersons, of religions, or of churches, ora respecter of races, and come to seeclearly that God is a Spirit, that God islife, that God is love, that actually the

presence of God is within you?

The very place whereon you stand isholy ground because the presence ofGod is there. But when you aredeclaring that about yourself, look up,look around you, and see all thehundreds of people in yourneighborhood, and then remember that

whether or not they know this truth, youmust know that it is the truth aboutthem, because if you are not knowingthis truth as a universal truth, you areagain trying to pinch a little of it off foryourself, to make it finite or limit it, andGod cannot be limited.

The next step is easier now than itwould have been but for the twoprevious steps, namely, (1) knowing thetruth, and (2) realizing that God is norespecter of persons. Now you arebetter able to recognize that man cannotinfluence God, that man has no powerover God's creation, man has no

jurisdiction over God's world, man hasno jurisdiction over God, period. Mancannot have his way with God; mancannot get God to do his will or his way;and therefore, the next need is tobecome a beholder because, since youcannot influence God, you can at leastwatch what God is doing. You canbecome a witness to the activity of Godin your life and everybody else's lifebecause, remember, when the suncomes up in the morning, it comes upfor Jew and Gentile, white and black,Oriental and Occidental: it has nofavorites; and you have to be willing torecognize that just as the sun rises foreverybody in the whole world, so isGod's grace available to everybody inthe world.

When you watch sugar cane orpineapples growing, it is foolish to thinkthat God is growing them for you or forme. God is just growing them. God'sgrace falls on the just and the unjust..

Always there must be theremembrance, then, that what God is



doing, God is doing, and He does notneed your help; and furthermore Hecannot be controlled by you or me or byanybody else. God's grace cannot bestopped. Even if you think that you areacting in disobedience to His laws,God's grace is still flowing, even thoughyou may not get the benefit of itbecause you have cut yourself off fromit.

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shallhe also reap." God has nothing to dowith your sowing or your reaping. It is asyou sow: "He that soweth to his fleshshall of the flesh reap corruption; but he

that soweth to the Spirit shall of theSpirit reap life everlasting." It is alwayswhat you do. By your thoughts andactions of today, you determine yourreaping of tomorrow.

So therefore, even if by some act ofyour own whether it is a disobedience toone or more of the Ten Commandments,or whether it is a violation of the secondgreat commandment of the Master tolove your neighbor as yourself, orwhatever it is if you have shut off health,safety, security, and inner peace, do notblame God for it, for God neither givesyou peace nor takes it from you; Godneither gives you health nor takes itfrom you; God neither gives you supplynor takes it from you. God's grace is as

free as sunshine. If you like, you canpull down the shades and never see thesun, and never feel it, but that isbecause of your action, not God's. Asfar as God is concerned, the sunshine isalways there.

So it is, then, that in the moment whenyou realize that God's grace is very

much like the sun hanging in the sky, itis there; it is available for everyone,even though, temporarily, there may beclouds hiding it, but nevertheless, it isthere. Your very recognition of this andyour refusal to try to get God to dosomething, your ability to refrain fromentreating or begging God, fromattempting to influence or bribe Him, thevery act itself of refraining from doingthese things brings the activity of Godinto your experience.

When you can sit back and realize thatGod is not because of you, but thatactually in spite of you, still God is

closer to you than breathing, the placewhereon you stand is holy ground, andwhere the presence of the Lord is, thereis freedom and fulfillment—when youlearn to refrain from attempting to takeheaven by storm, and when you areable to sit back in the realization,"Where I am, God is," and be still, youhave opened the way in your ownconsciousness for the Omnipresencewhich is already there to make Itselfmanifest and evident in your experience.

The great error has always been tryingto influence God: "God, go out thereand destroy my enemies! God, go outthere and bring my enemies'possessions to me!" This attempt topersonalize God or to get God to do

something for some specific person andnot for everybody indicates a lack ofunderstanding of God as Spirit.

The very statement that God is Spirit isin itself a freeing and a healing one. Noone can do anything about moving orchanging Spirit, influencing It or bribingIt. There is nothing to do but let It



envelop you, let It pick you up, let Itdominate you, let Its will be done in you,and then you make of yourself atransparency through which the lightthat is already present within you canshine: not a light that is gained frombooks or from some form of worship, orfrom teachers, but a light that books orworship or teachers can reveal to youas already having existence within you.

The teacher's function is to unveil thelight that already constitutes yourinnermost being, self, or identity. Thefunction of the teacher and the teachingis to unveil the presence of the Spirit of

God that is within you, so that you caneventually live in this conviction, "ThankYou, Father; You and I are one."

What the Master has said is true: "I willnever leave thee, nor forsake thee. . . .Lo, I am with you always, even unto theend of the world," but the teacherunveils and reveals to you the Presencethat is saying this to you from withinyour own being and reminding you thatthe Father knows your need before youdo. It is His good pleasure to give youthe Kingdom. Therefore, you can rest inthis realization: The Father is within me.The kingdom of God is within me.

The Indwelling Presence

There is a divine Presence within you,and it is the function of this Presence toheal the sick, raise the dead, preach theGospel, feed the hungry, and forgivesinners: this is Its function. It has neverleft you It will never leave you! You couldchange your religion seven times over,but that Presence would still be withyou. You could live in a place where no

one had ever heard of a church, and thePresence would still be with you. It willnever leave you, nor forsake you. Andremember this: It is not dependent uponanything. It is not even dependent uponyour having a right thought. It is alwaysthere, but your enjoying the benefits of Itis dependent upon your knowing thetruth of Its omnipresence.

Gradually, as you receive confirmationfrom within yourself that it is true thatthere is a Presence, the Voice speaks toyou. Whether It speaks audibly or not isof no importance, as long as in one wayor another you feel that you are living by

Grace, not by might, not by power, notby force, but by Grace, by a divineGrace that operates just as freely as theincoming and outgoing tides or therising and the setting of the sun, and

just as painlessly. It is not a matter ofearning or deserving it.

As human beings, we can never earn ordeserve the grace of God, and that iswhy we are told that we must die dailyand that we must be reborn of the Spirit.The truth is that as children of God weare heirs to God's grace, and all wehave to do is to recognize our sonship.

And so as we ponder these basic truths,as we learn to come into a state ofmind, a state of consciousness, that is

filled with an assurance that there is aninner Presence, and learn to relax in It,we find that It does our thinking for us; Itcorrects and enlightens us; It goesbefore us to make the crooked placesstraight; It is a healing influence in mindand body; It is a supplying presence.But It does all this without any help fromus, except for our ability to relax in It.



"He maketh me to lie down in greenpastures: he leadeth me beside the stillwaters" it is always He. "He performeththe thing that is appointed for me" notthe little "I," but He. "The Lord willperfect that which concerneth me." Butdo you not see that He cannot do it if wetake hold of the reins and do all thedriving? If we take thought for what weshall eat, or what we shall drink, orwherewithal we shall be clothed, we areleaving no room for any He: it is all thatlittle "I," the very "I" that should be dyingdaily in order that that I which is ourspiritual identity can be reborn.

If you have grasped what I have said upto this point, you should be able tounderstand the passage, "In quietnessand in confidence shall be your strength'in quietness and in confidence. How canyou be quiet, how can you haveconfidence unless you have thisawareness of an inner Grace? And youcan only have this awareness of aninner Grace when you begin torecognize Its universal nature,recognize that It belongs to all men.

Those who are not recognizing thisinner Grace, we are told, are thethousand that fall at our left and the tenthousand at our right, those, as theMaster tells us, who are not abiding in

the Word nor letting the Word abide inthem and who, therefore, are as abranch of a tree that is cut off andwithereth.

So it is that not everybody will benefit bythis truth just because it is the truth. No!Only "ye" who know the truth permit thetruth to make you free -- you who abide

in this Word of an indwelling Presence.Those of you who stop —I was going tosay stop annoying God, but I am surethat God cannot be annoyed —those ofyou who stop going through the motionsthat would annoy God, if God could beannoyed, that is, trying to influence Him,trying to bribe Him, trying to promiseHim something in the future, instead ofrealizing that God is Spirit, God is life,God is love, and that you have to find away to let all of this flow out from you,will come into an actual awareness ofthe presence of God.

The Contemplative Life Develops aSense of Universality

This really constitutes a way of life.True, it is a religious way of life, exceptthat if you use such a term, it wouldseem to denote some particular religionwith special rituals and ceremonies, andit is not that kind of life at all. It is areligious life in the sense that thisteaching develops a consciousawareness of God, but to avoid givingthe impression that we have foundsome particular religion through whichGod is blessing us, we should rightlycall this the contemplative way of lifebecause it is a way of life that can belived by all people regardless of anypersonal or denominational persuasion.

The contemplative way of liferecognizes God as Spirit, and that Spiritas Omnipresence—the Spirit withinone's own being. Therefore, it is anabsolutely unrestricted way of life,available to anyone of any faith or nofaith, as long as he can recognize thatGod is Spirit, recognize God as its



central theme not your God or my God, just God and a God that belongs tonobody, a God that just is, and isuniversal.

That is why the contemplative life canflourish in every country on the globewhere there is freedom and wherepeople are not compelled to worship ina specific way. Even where there is nofreedom, this way of life can be followedbecause it does not build a fencearound God or lay down specific rules: it

just recognizes God as the Principle oflife, the Grand Architect of the wholeuniverse.

For this reason, then, the contemplativelife is the way for any person who canrecognize that wherever or howeverGod is worshiped, it is the same God,that there cannot be more than oneGod. Whether as Hebrews we go into atemple with hats on, or as Christianswith hats off, as Orientals with our shoesoff or as Christians with shoes on, itmust be understood that these outwardforms can make no difference, that allwe are doing is worshiping in whateverway means dedication or sacredness tous.

What represents sacredness to anindividual determines his worship. If anindividual feels that he is honoring God

by keeping his hat on, that is merely hisidea of worship and sanctity, but the actof wearing or not wearing a headcovering does not change God. Ifanother individual feels that he ishonoring God with his shoes off, thatvery act is an evidence of the sincerityof that individual's worship. Therefore,when you live the contemplative life, you

will respect the Moslem who takes offhis shoes and sits on the ground, andyou will respect those who have otherceremonial forms of worship, and youwill also respect those who have noform of worship at all, because you willknow that each in his own way isdedicating himself to God, and not hisGod because God is not the possessionof any one person: there is only God,and God is Spirit.

The contemplative, then, is actuallypaving the way for world peace,because he is recognizing that there isonly one Father, one God, equally of all,

and that all men everywhere arebrothers and sisters; and therefore, theonly relationship that is essential is thatwe treat each other as members of oneunited household.

To do this is to love the one and onlyGod supremely, but it is also to loveyour neighbor as yourself. When youacknowledge one God as Father and allmen as brothers, you wipe out one ofthe most important causes of war, andwhen you love your neighbor as yourselfyou wipe out the other, becausecontroversies over religion andcommercial rivalry have always beenrecognized as the two major causes ofall war and discord.

Another important result of learning tolove God supremely and your neighboras yourself is not immediately apparent.If you can accept God as Spirit, you cannever again fear. You can never fearwhat form of government we have orany other country has. You can neverfear what anyone does. God is thenanimating human consciousness, and



because there is only the power of God,there is nothing left to fear, and whenfear is gone, the final cause of ourdiscords is gone.

When we learn to love one another,which means not to fear one another,we have set the pattern for individualand world harmony. We could all live ineternal harmony if we did not fear, but

just let fear creep into any group ofpeople and there can easily be a firstclass war, and then there would besides taken: your side and my side. Butas long as there is a realization of Godas Spirit, no one has anything to fear,

for Spirit fills all space, and where theSpirit of the Lord is, there is nothing tofear: no danger, no insecurity, nopowers apart from God. Therefore, justto realize that God is Spirit begins tofree this whole universe of fear.

ACROSS THE DESK

Much of the world belief about God isthe truth about the karmic law of causeand effect. It is this generalmisconception that makes ineffectual somuch prayer. Prayer is answered onlyas we come to "know Him aright." Doyou really grasp the significance of lawand Grace?

Do you actually discern that God is notresponsible for the rewards andpunishments we experience? Can yourealize that we ourselves set in motionthe evil and good influences that touchour lives by our ignorance or by ourawareness of the nature of God? Doyou understand how the belief in twopowers binds us, and how we canrelease ourselves from the law of cause

and effect, at least in a measure, andcome under Grace?

Our students should feel a deep senseof responsibility to continue dailyspecific work for the realization ofspiritual government universallyexpressed. We need to feel God'sgovernment as a universal law of peace,

justice, life, and love not that mortalscan express these qualities, but thatGod expresses them as individualbeing.

F O U RThe Esoteric Meaning

of the Easter WeekAs we learn to see the significancebehind the observance of particular

holidays or, more correctly, holy days,we are then able to realize how and whycertain days have been set aside byvarious religious groups as a time forprayer and meditation. Then we cancontemplate the principles which thesedays commemorate rather thanconsider them as merely holidays fromdaily work, which often find us no betteroff the day after than the day before,except for that short period of rest.

When the events which we memorializeas holidays occurred, there undoubtedlywas no thought in anyone's mind thatbecause of the happenings of that day,people in far off places throughout theworld would pause in commemoration,but the fact is that these days have



become important because the eventscommemorated illustrate spiritualprinciples of life which haveevolved: principles which all men andwomen can adopt and by which theycan live.

The Humility and Benevolence ofMaundy Thursday

The day before Good Friday, MaundyThursday, Jesus washed the feet of thedisciples. He made himself humblebefore them:

He riseth from supper, and laid aside hisgarments; and took a towel, and girdedhimself.

After that he poureth water into a basin,and began to wash the disciples' feet,and to wipe them with the towelwherewith he was girded.

If I then, your Lord and Master, havewashed your feet; ye also ought to washone another's feet.

He fed them at the Last Supper with thebread of life:

Jesus took bread, and blessed it, andbrake it, and gave it to the disciples. . .

He thereby exemplified two of thegreatest principles of spiritual living:humility and benevolence, neither ofwhich is correctly understood in humanlife.

Most persons interpret humility to meanthat a person belittles himself orconsiders himself less worthy than

another or beneath someone else. Butthe true humility of Maundy Thursday,as applied to spiritual living, has no suchmeaning. True humility is theacknowledgment that I of my own selfam nothing: The Father within me is all.It has nothing to do with my being lessthan you, or your being less than I. Ithas nothing to do with my holdingmyself in the background and pushingyou into the foreground, or vice versa. Itis purely a relationship between Godand me. It is an acknowledgment everyday and in every way:

I of mine own self am nothing; I of mineown self can do nothing. If I speak ofmyself, I bear witness to a lie. TheFather is the life of my being. TheFather within me, the divine Presenceever with me, constitutes my wisdom,intelligence, and sagacity, my strength,my health, and my beauty.

Whatever it is that I may claim as aquality is not mine at all: It is the activityof a spiritual Presence, which functionsas I. It created me as an individual entityin the beginning; It formed for me thisbody, this mind, and this life; and Itfunctions as my intelligence; It functionsas my relationships with everyone onearth.

We are only humble in the degree thatwe actually know that this is true andrealize that He that is within us isgreater than he that is in the world, orthat He performeth that which is givenus to do. This is being humble; this istrue humility. The only correct selfeffacement there is, is the effacement ofa personal sense of virtue and the



acknowledgment that God has made orgiven us all that we are, and that God isfunctioning in us, and through us.

Of old, the purpose of Maundy Thursdaywas that there might be a complete dayof rest for contemplation and meditationon humility and benevolence. Humilitymust come first because, without it,there can be no truly spiritual sense ofbenevolence. Always let us rememberthat in true humility we are not makingourselves lower than someone else: weare subjecting ourselves unto God; weare surrendering ourselves unto God;

we are giving to God our mind, soul,spirit, and body, and are acknowledging:

Thou art the life; Thou art the way andthe truth. Thou art my being, mywisdom, my guidance, my direction, mysupport, my supply, my maintenance,and my eternality.

When we begin to understandbenevolence in its true light, we shallknow that we have never beencharitable or benevolent, nor have weever given anything to anyone that is,anything that was really ours. We shallunderstand that whatever it is that wehave is ours by the grace of God, andwhatever we give, share, or bestow, wedo also by the grace of God. We are but

the instruments through which Godfunctions, first, to provide us with thetwelve baskets full that are left over sothat we may share, and then to give usHis grace in the form of a will and adesire and an opportunity to share.

There have been persons who havebeen so generous in their giving that

they have impoverished themselves, butthat is only because they believed thatthey were giving of their ownpossessions and did not understandthat they had nothing of their own togive, but that all they apparentlypossessed belonged to God. It is, forexample, like presenting someone witha bouquet of flowers and believing thatthey are ours. They never were, neverare, and never could be: they are God's,formed by God. They were created byGod and they grow in our garden byvirtue of God. The more we cut and giveaway, the more we have. They are notour personal possession: they are

entrusted to us as an expression ofbeauty, but we know right well that, if weleave them in our garden, they will onlyrot and fade away, and certainly notmake room for more to grow. It is in thecutting of them, the giving and sharingof them, and in the pruning that wemake room for more to grow.

Through the contemplation of MaundyThursday, we shall learn that, no matterhow much of this world's goods wehave, these things of the world are notours. "The earth is the Lord's, and thefulness thereof," and we can be just asgenerous with it as we want to be, aslong as we recognize, "This that I haveis mine by the grace of God, and it ismine to use and to share." In that

attitude, we are impersonalizing goodand again we are being humble. Againwe are saying, "I am not charitablebecause I am not giving anything of myown. I am not sacrificing. I am aninstrument of God, helping to meetsomeone else's need: God meetinganother's need through me."



"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulnessthereof" is not just a scriptural statementof truth: It is a living truth. "The earth isthe Lord's, and the fulness thereof," andby the grace of God whatever wepossess comes to us, and by the graceof God, also, are we given the desire,the will, and the opportunity to share.

Good Friday: The Crucifixion ofPersonal Sense

Another holy day of the Easter week isGood Friday Spiritually speaking, we donot celebrate the crucifixion of thephysical form of Jesus. The lesson for

us in the crucifixion of Jesus and in hisresurrection on the third day is to showus the way to find life eternal. That way,the Master clearly revealed, is by meansof the death of personal sense. To beresurrected from the tomb, we must dieto our personal sense of life, becauseour personal sense of life is a tomb inwhich we lie buried. We must die to thebelief that of our own limited selves weare something, that we have lives of ourown, a mind, a soul, a way, and a will ofour own. We are to die to the belief thatwe have possessions of our own, or anyvirtue, any life, any being, any harmony,or any success of our own.

Good Friday is a day in which we shouldcontemplate and meditate upon theinner meaning of crucifixion. By goingback to the Gospels, looking upon theMaster as a symbol, a way shower, andreconstructing in our thought his life,ministry, crucifixion, and hisresurrection, we can learn how hebrought about the death of personalsense, how he avoided beingoverwhelmed by his problems, even

when he had the serious problem ofbeing faced with betrayal and death,and how, by refusing to consider hispersonal afflictions as problems, he wasable to rise above all material sense inthe glorious affirmation made when hestood before Pilate: "To this end was Iborn, and for this cause came I into theworld." To him, neither life nor deathwas a problem.

When Jesus seemed to be in lack at thewell of Samaria, and the disciples wereconcerned with bringing him meat, wenote that he says, "I have meat to eatthat ye know not of"; and to the woman

at the well, "Whosoever drinketh of thiswater shall thirst again: But whosoeverdrinketh of the water that I shall give himshall never thirst; but the water that Ishall give him shall be in him a well ofwater springing up into everlasting life."As we ponder these statements, as wellas all the other teachings of Jesus in theGospels, we come to the realization thatwhat this man is saying in substance is,"I have nothing, but I have everything. Ihave not where to lay my head, but Ihave food with which to feed fivethousand and twelve baskets full leftover." He had meat the world knew notof; he had water that sprang up into lifeeternal.

This man is a monumental figure. He

really had everything: He had God, theFather within, and because he had God,he could share infinity with everyonewho lacked, whether it was water orwine, bread or meat, or at the finalbreakfast, fish. It made no differencewhat it was: he had it to share, yet healways reminded us that of his own selfhe could do nothing: "If I bear witness of



myself, my witness is not true. . . . Whycallest thou me good?"

There we see the principle of GoodFriday, the principle of the crucifixion ofpersonal sense, a crucifixion of thebelief that we of ourselves havequalities of good or quantities of good.But with that crucifixion, comes theresurrection in the realization, "I amnothing, but I can give you all." Why?Because "the Father that dwelleth inme, he doeth the works."

Instead of thinking of Good Friday asanother holy day to be commemorated,

what we should realize is that here is aday for the contemplation of anotherspiritual principle of life: the principle ofself abnegation, in which, when we havebrought to light the nothingness of ourhuman selfhood, then is revealed theallness, immortality, and eternality of ourbeing because I and the Father are one,and all that the Father has is mine.

Easter: The Rising AboveAll Material Ties

That brings us to the Resurrectionwhen, after having died to personalsense and having entombed that falsesense of self, our true Self rises out ofthat tomb of the little sell and walks thisearth free: free and infinite, immortaland eternal, full of God being. That isour Easter, our day of ascension, andwe find that in our self renunciation, asin our humility, we have stepped out of atomb. We are walking the earth now, notfull of personal possessions or personalvirtues, but filled with the Holy Ghost,the Spirit of the Lord God Almightywhich is upon us, and then, we are

ordained. Now that material sense hasbeen thoroughly quenched, our realnature, our real being, can come to light.

Paul envisioned this when he revealedto us the two men that we are, each oneof us a dual being. We were born theman of earth, and that is what weremain until the crucifixion, That is whatwe remain as long as we are in thebusiness of glorifying and building upself. But Paul tells us of that other Selfwhich we are, that man who has hisbeing in Christ, that spiritual man ordivine Self. That is the man you and Iare when we can say, "I can do all

things through Christ." Those are themagic words: "I can do all thingsthrough Christ, through the Spirit of Godin me, through the presence of theFather within me."

Such a person is no more the man ofearth. He is no more the man whoclaims that he is wise, holy, or spiritual.No, that man has been thoroughlycrucified, and now we behold a manwho recognizes, "By the grace of God, Ican do anything —I can do all thingsthrough Christ."

Saul of Tarsus was thoroughly crucified.He not only went blind on the road toDamascus; he "died." And out of thattomb stepped Paul, no longer Saul of

Tarsus, but Paul: Paul, a man who hadhis being in Christ and who now lived bythe grace of God, a man who travelednot only the Holy Lands, but Rome andGreece, wherever he would, by thegrace of God, a man who set up sevenchurches and found that those sevenchurches could not support him or hismissionary work, but they, looking to



him, found that he could support allseven churches.

By virtue of what? He had no gold minesor oil wells, but he had the grace ofGod; he had his being in Christ; heknew that "I live; yet not I, but Christliveth in me." Therefore, he could relaxand let this spirit of divine sonship be hisbread, his meat, wine, water, and hisresurrection and life eternal. When thetransition has been made from that manof earth to that man who has his beingin Christ, then we find the readiness forthe ascension, the ascension which is arising above every material tie.

There is an indication of that in thepassage that is in the beginning of everyInfinite Way book and booklet:"Illumination dissolves all material tiesand binds men together with the goldenchains of spiritual understanding." Wedo not have to be blood brothers andblood sisters; we do not even have to bebrothers or sisters through nationality, orreligious brothers and sisters, for wehave a holier tie than any humanrelationship that has ever beenconceived. There is a spiritual tie thatunites us because we have risen abovethe belief that we have to be membersof one particular human family, racial,religious, or national, in order to beunited in a fellowship of love and

understanding.

For many years in The Infinite Way wehave demonstrated that spiritually wereally are of one household. All of youwho have been a part of this work sincethe early days and in the years thathave followed have seen in actualpractice the most beautiful relationship

that can be manifested on this earth,and that without a single tie of humanrelationship.

With this in mind, do you not see that inthe ascension we break every materiallaw and find that man has his being inChrist? The spiritual son is fed from thatsame spiritual source from which ourrelationship has been fed and which hasmaintained us in this relationshipthrough these years. There is no limit tothe spiritual demonstration that we canmake, except such limitation as webring upon ourselves by not thoroughlycrucifying that personal sense of self.

The Esoteric Meaningof Exoteric Teachings

A spiritual teaching penetrates beneathevery human symbol to its spiritualmeaning. So whether it is a holiday orholy day, whether it is a relationship, abusiness, or a government, behindevery one of these activities there is aspiritual principle involved, and whenthat principle is understood and appliedin daily life, we are living the mystical orspiritual life, the life that the Mastershowed us how to live.

Jesus had no hesitancy in urging hisdisciples to take no thought for whatthey should eat or what they shoulddrink, He hesitated not one bit in tellinghis disciples to set forth on their journeywithout purse or scrip. From the humanstandpoint he was not at all practical,yet he is our way shower and, strangelyenough, we shall find if we obey histeachings, that it is very practical to gowithout purse and without scrip andwithout taking thought for how anything



will be met, because there is an InfiniteInvisible. Jesus called It the Fatherwithin; Paul called It the Christ, thatSomething which is and becomestangibly visible as the bread, water, andwine, the safety, security, and thepeace. Spiritual teachings go far beyondmerely assuring us of food and clothingand housing.

If we were to consider the subject ofsafety and security, we wouldimmediately, in all probability, beginthinking in terms of some tangible kindof protection, which might take the formof a bombproof shelter, a bulletproof

vest, or a gas mask. Yet these are notnecessary, although at times they maybe provided, even though no one has totake thought for them or be concernedabout them because Scripture revealsthat God is a fortress, a high tower, ahiding place, and an abiding place. Godis a rock.

When we begin to understand this froma spiritual standpoint, we shall know thatit is literally true: not that God provides arock or a high tower, or a fortress, butthat God is Himself the safety, andtherefore, those who live and move andhave their being in God need take nothought for any material form ofprotection. This is important to everyone of us because from every side there

are threatening dangers: infection,contagion, accident, wars, bombs, and athousand other things. But none ofthese can come nigh our dwelling place,if our thought is not on physical safetyand security, but is held steadfastly tothe realization of God as the temple inwhich we live, the hiding place, thefortress, and the rock.

This is the esoteric meaning of exotericteaching. In other words, what is plainlyset forth for all to read in the scripturesof all peoples of the world are exotericteachings, but each one of these has anesoteric meaning, that is, the outerteachings all have inner or hiddenmeanings. For example, to go throughthe ritual of a communion service mayprovide a measure of satisfaction tomany communicants, but this is not thereal importance of that ritual. Theexperience of communion takes placewithin one's Self when the true meaningof being fed the bread or the wine of

communion is realized and understood.The real communion is theunderstanding of the meaning of beingfed spiritually, of being fed by /: I am thebread of life; / am the water; I am theblood; / am the resurrection; / am lifeeternal. When we understand that, theneither the outer communion takes ongreater meaning, or it becomesmeaningless because now we have thatwhich is greater than the outer form: wehave the inner realization.

As you read Scripture, do not read pageafter page. Read only a small portion ata time, whether the passage is onesentence or whether it is an entire story,such as the experience of Elijah beingfed in the wilderness, or Moses'

experience in leading the Hebrews outof slavery and carrying them through thewilderness, or some one or anotherparticular phase of Jesus' ministry. Thenmeditate and contemplate, asking forinner light on the esoteric meaning ofthose passages. Only trust, and it will begiven to you.



To illustrate that point, I recall the many,many years that I could not understandthe 91st Psalm. It did not make sense tome when it promised that none of thesethings would come nigh my dwellingplace because they did come nigh mydwelling place, and what is more, I sawthem come nigh the dwelling place of allmy friends and relatives, too, as well asall the other people that I met in theworld. When the time came that Iunderstood all Scripture as having aninner meaning, I prayed, "What is theinner meaning of this much lovedPsalm? What does it mean?"

Then one day, as if in great big electriclights, the first verse stood out: "He thatdwelleth in the secret place of the mostHigh shall abide under the shadow ofthe Almighty." It does not promiseimmunity to everybody. It promisesimmunity to those that dwell "in thesecret place of the most High." No oneis safe from the snare or from the pituntil inwardly he can make thisagreement:

I am not living in a material world of timeand space. I live and move and have mybeing in God: I am that man who has hisbeing in Christ. I live with God; I walkwith God; I hold my mind steadfast inGod; I acknowledge Him in all my ways.In quietness and in confidence, I rest in

the assurance of God's presence: Godin me, and I in God .

With that in your mind, day in and dayout, you are abiding in the Word andletting the Word abide in you, and youwill bear fruit richly. No one has the rightto feel safe or secure in this world,unless he is living in that Word and

letting that Word abide in him, unless heis living and moving and having hisbeing in God realization, acknowledgingGod in all his ways, in short, unless heis releasing his life into God.

Do you see why the Master said, "Straitis the gate, and narrow is the way, whichleadeth unto life, and few there be thatfind it"? The world hopes that by goingto church on Sunday it can enter intoGod's grace, but Scripture is very clearabout that when it reminds us, "Thouwilt keep him in perfect peace, whosemind is stayed on thee. . . . In all thyways acknowledge him, and he shall

direct thy paths. . . Abide in me, and I inyou." Dwell, live, move, and have yourbeing in the "secret place of the mostHigh." Then you are not of the earth,earthy. Then you are abiding in God, inSpirit, where the human mind and itsactivities cannot reach you, where thelaws of matter do not function, and youfind yourself free.

You will not, however, find yourselfinstantly one hundred per cent free.There are still periods of sickness andeven periods of lack, or periods oftemptation to sin, and maybe evensome falling by the wayside and somesinning. Everyone stumbles: somephysically, some mentally, some morally,some financially. The sin is not to

stumble, but to stumble and never riseagain. To pick one's self up after a falland begin all over again is the spiritualway, a way for which the Masterprovided when he reminded us toforgive unto seventy times seven. And ifwe are supposed to forgive seventytimes seven, surely the heavenly Father



forgives seven thousand times seventytimes without limit.

If overnight you do not find yourself inthat land of milk and honey, rememberthat it took Moses forty years to getthere. It took Elijah quite a long timebefore he found the seven thousandwho had not bowed their knees to Baaland who were saved out for him. It tookJesus three years to fulfill his spiritualministry, and even then he had toencounter actual death before he couldexperience Resurrection and Ascension.

So do not be surprised or disappointed

if you fall down or fail many times.Everyone who has been this way beforeyou has done the same. There are nogreat spiritual lights who have not comeup through trials and tribulations of onesort or another, and probably those whohave the greatest love in their hearts,those who have the greatest spiritualgifts of all, are those who have mostdeeply experienced failure and,therefore, know what it means to walkwith us in our failures. Those who haverisen highest and can still look down towhere they were are the ones who helpus the most on the way. Those who donot understand forgiveness do notunderstand love, and those who do notunderstand love do not understand theSpirit of the Lord God Almighty.

The Final Step Must Be Taken Alone

The spiritual life is an individual life.There are ways of receiving help from ateacher and from one another, but thefinal battle and final victory are entirelyindividual matters, which must be foughtout in the consciousness of each one of

us. Jesus probably could have receiveda little support from his disciples in theGarden of Gethsemane; he did not getvery much, but the fact that he expectedmore showed that it was possible. Buteven if he had, he still had Golgotha, hestill had the crucifix, and he still had thetomb. That had to be worked out in hisown consciousness.

Only those who have received the lightcan know what a terrible struggle it isbefore it comes. Moses was alone onthe Mount when he received his light,and it must have been a tremendousstruggle before it broke through. He had

to be alone to struggle out of hishumanhood into the realization of hisdivine nature and mission. Rememberhow Moses even refused the mission,how he felt himself unworthy and illprepared, and that, too, he had to fightout within himself until he could come tothe realization that this was not hismessage or his mission: It was God's,and he would let God use his body; Godwould have to talk for him, and throughhim.

Everyone who attains, attains forhimself, within himself. All such arefortunate if they find a teacher who canbe a help to them for a time; they arefortunate if they find companions on theway with whom they can share many

hours, many experiences, and who canhelp. But always remember that the finaldemonstration you make alone. Jesusmade it without mother, without father,without sister, without brother, eventhough in the end they all came back tohim.



As trials and tribulations come, you areboth wise and fortunate if you have ateacher to whom you can go and fromwhom you can receive your help. Youare blessed if you have even oneperson with whom you can walk, withwhom you can share whom you canhelp and from whom you can receivehelp.

But never forget this: You cannot enterthe kingdom of God two by two. Allalone, you take that last mile. All alone,you receive your illumination. All alone,you receive your particular temptation inthe form of disease, accident, sin,

death, poverty, or lonesomeness allalone. You resolve all temptations withinyourself. You struggle with them insideyour own being, just as a mother has tostruggle out her life with her child or herchildren. Nobody can do that for amother; nobody can relieve her of theresponsibility; nobody can perform thefunction of a mother for her. Everymother has to break her own heart overher own children, and even a husbandhas to stand by and watch.

So it is on the spiritual path. No one cantake your temptation from you but you,and no one else can surmount thetemptation. No one can spend the hoursof meditation for you; no one can put inthe hours of study for you; and no one

can be alone with you in your innersanctuary in those hours precedingillumination. That is why this path is adifficult one. You have to take Scriptureand pray for guidance on every passagethat contains a principle or spiritual law,and let its esoteric meaning come forthfrom Within yourself.

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, andEaster Sunday: these are all symbolic ofstages in our spiritual ongoing. You willhave to struggle every single day toremind yourself that every quality, everythought, and every thing that youpossess are yours only by the grace ofGod, but because they are yours by thegrace of God, you can share liberally.This, you have to bring consciously toyour remembrance; no one can do it foryou. You must do it, and one day it maybe weeks or it may be months later if itis faithfully performed, one day all of asudden, it comes, and you know,"Whereas before I was blind, now I

understand. It is really true: all that I am,I am by the grace of God." Personalsense is crucified, and the resurrectedSelf, no longer earthbound, rises to theheights of spiritual realization.

ACROSS THE DESK

Every day, give sufficient time to acontemplative meditation embodying ourmajor principles of healing. Realize thatour goal is the conscious awareness ofthe spiritual Presence, the attainment of"My peace," the remembrance of Thygrace as our sufficiency. Understandthat He is closer than breathing and thatHe performeth that which is given us todo. Feel within yourself that the invisibleSpirit goes before you, that It neverleaves you nor forsakes you.Acknowledge that in every phase ofyour daily life there is a divine law andlife governing your every activity.

n this contemplative meditation, giveGod the first fruits of your day, give Himlove and gratitude, give Him recognitionand joy. Then realize that His grace is



present with men everywhere, to bless,forgive, establish, and reestablish.Finally, ponder the meaning ofOmnipotence, Omnipresence, andOmniscience.

In this same contemplative meditation,look at the evils that appear in "thisworld" and, regardless of how manyappear or what forms they assume,impersonalize them by yourunderstanding that these are themesmeric pictures of sense, pictures ofthe carnal mind or the belief in twopowers. Since these are not ordained ofGod and have no law of God to sustain

them, they dissolve of their ownnothingness. Only that which is of Godhas law and life. All else is illusion.Understand that since God is one, thereis but one power; and therefore, thereare no powers to overcome or destroy."Resist not evil" because youunderstand the illusory nature ofappearances.

Remember that in prayer the wordsthemselves count for nothing: it is theunderstanding and feeling behind thewords that constitute the power. Finally,realize that the function of the Christ isto break the attachment to "this world"not to increase the things of this world.This is the way whereby reality isattained, freedom from concern about

appearances, and freedom to live. Nowwe are attuned and prepared to hearHis word.

Now we are ready to enter His kingdom.

Be at peace. My Spirit comforts andprospers you. My grace is thy fulfillment.

F I V ESteps on the Path of

IlluminationThe goal of our work is the attainment ofsome measure of spiritualconsciousness: to return to the Father'shouse and thereby attain some degreeof that spiritual light which will result inour again becoming children of God.The human race, as we know it, is notthe offspring of God. It would dishonorGod to believe that He could createwhat confronts us as human beings; itwould be a travesty on God to believethat the conditions existing in this worldtoday were created by Him.

The Master's message was very clearlyone of dying daily in order to be rebornof the Spirit. Paul, too, made it clear that

as creatures we are not under the law ofGod, "neither indeed can be," but thatwe can become children of God, we canreturn to the Father's house and onceagain be under the law of God, theprotection and care of God. TheMaster's entire mission was to revealhow the transition from the man of earthto that man who has his being in Christcan be made; his entire mission was toreveal the nature of spiritual revelation,spiritual realization, spiritual attainment.

Most of the great religious teachings ofthe world have adopted as their themethe idea that the man of Adam is outsidethe Garden of Eden, that is, outside thekingdom of God, and that throughspiritual living, practice, and prayer, he



can be returned to the Kingdom andagain come under the grace of God.This process is known as illumination.Those who are illumined are those whohave risen above mortal or materialconsciousness, those who havereceived light and, in some cases,initiation.

Gaining Freedom from Materialand Mental Laws

There have been brotherhoods, mysticalorders, many of which operated on theprinciple that the initiate could beprepared by degrees for further light,

taken from one stage into another andanother until eventually illumination tookplace, resulting in a transcending ofmaterial consciousness into a measureof consciousness whereby the individualcame under spiritual law.

As human beings, we are under thelaws of matter and mind, but these lawsof matter and of mind are not laws ofGod. The reason we know that theselaws are not laws of God is becauselaws of matter or of mind can be, andare, used for good or for evil, but thelaws of God cannot be used at all. Noone has ever been able to use a law ofGod: one can be used by the law ofGod; he can be a servant of the law ofGod; he can be an instrument throughwhich God works, but he cannot useGod.

As children of God, we are used byGod and by God's laws, and aregoverned by those laws; but God doesnot know good and evil because, in therealm of God, there are no pairs ofopposites. In the realm of God there is

neither health nor disease; there isneither youth nor age; there is neitherlife nor death: there is just a continuityof immortal being.

God changes not; God is the same fromeverlasting to everlasting, and His waysare perfect. "In him is no darkness atall" —in Him there is no evil; in Himthere is nothing of a negative nature:there is only the perfection andimmortality of eternal and infinite being.The person who rises even slightly intospiritual realization becomes in a smalldegree free of material and mentalpowers, a freedom noticeable in life

even if only in a measure.

In the earliest stages of spiritualattainment, we do not immediatelyembody our full and complete spiritualfreedom, nor do we at once gainimmunity from all the laws and powersof matter and mind; but in proportion toour attainment of spiritual light domaterial and mental powers lessen theirhold upon us, and we then become lessthe victims of the changing good andevil of the material sense of life. Notonly do we become less victims ofmaterial and mental laws, but we alsolose the capacity to use material ormental laws in our relationships with oneanother.

In the less evolved stages of human life,it seems normal and natural to acceptthe eye-for-an-eye-and-a-tooth-for-a-tooth law or to take up swords, evenlegal swords, against one another; butthose men and women who are in theworld but not of it and who have attainedsome measure of spiritual light resortless and less to the use of material,



legal, or even mental weapons. There isa gradual surrender of what we call ourrights, and a greater degree of relianceon God's ability to establish our rightsfor us, within us, and through us.

The entire human picture changes forthose on the spiritual path, and they donot come under material laws to theextent that they formerly did.Furthermore, as students of spiritualwisdom they are less subject to the lawsof disease than they were before theybegan to pursue this study.

If we were to trace the history of the

families who have lived for years withmetaphysical or mystical religiousteachings as their guide, we would soondiscover how comparatively littledisease, lack, poverty, and inharmonyhave been their lot. This does not meanthat they have yet attained completefreedom, but only that even a degree ofspiritual freedom includes a freedomfrom the discords of the flesh and thatthe ultimate and perfect freedom isproportionate to spiritual growth.

Attaining the TranscendentalConsciousness

In order to attain some measure of thisspiritual Consciousness, it is necessarythat specific principles be followed. Thismessage, therefore, contains certainprinciples which, when read, studied,practiced, and embodied inconsciousness, become operative asthe fourth dimensional or transcendentalConsciousness, a consciousness whichis attained in one of two ways.

The first way of attaining thisConsciousness is by an act of God,which sometimes takes place in theexperience of an individual and, forsome unknown reason and without anyeffort on his part, lifts him into this fourthdimensional or transcendentalConsciousness. This is the gift of God.

In this chapter, we are going to dealprimarily with the second way which is aconscious attainment of this higherConsciousness.

In our human state, we have beentaught to rely almost entirely on our

human wisdom, our physical strength,or our personal efforts. The object ofturning to a spiritual teaching is toenable us to release ourselves from thestrain of modern day life to living "not bymight, nor by power, but by my spirit," toletting the Christ live our life. Grace thenbegins to take over, and our life is livedmore by It and less by personal effort.

There is an invisible Presence that goesbefore us to "make the crooked placesstraight," that goes before us to preparea place for us; there is a Presence thatacts as an intuitive sense, leading us inthe right direction. The goal of spiritualliving is the attainment of thatConsciousness.

Put Up Thy Sword

As human beings, we live by power;most of us rely on material or mentalpower of some kind. It may be astronger form of material powerovercoming a lesser form of materialpower, or it may be a mental powerovercoming a material force, but the



entire human experience consists ofovercoming one power by the use of ahigher or stronger power. In themetaphysical world, the forces of matterare overcome by the forces of mind,resulting in mind over matter and evenmind over mind.

On the path of the Fourth Dimension,however, that is done away withbecause in the Fourth Dimension, thereis no power. Here we make use of nopower; here we enter the realm revealedby the Master: the resist-not-evil realm,the put-up-thy-sword realm. Here welearn to relax and put up our mental

sword, and when we are tempted with amaterial or a mental power, threateningour comfort, health, well being, safety,or security, we do not deny or affirm:instead we release ourselves from anyresistance to that which is appearing tous as evil in any form.

It is not easy to do this because ourwhole inclination as human beings is tostrike out to defend ourselves, andeven, where necessary, to take theoffensive. It is claimed that through thepower of smell, animals can detect fearin human beings and that when theyattack a person, they are not attackinghim, but are attacking that fear becausethey realize that that fear could make aperson destructive and harmful to them,

and therefore they take the offensiveand try to destroy him before he candestroy them. A somewhat parallelsituation may be noted in the way somepersons meet the conditions of humanlife.

On the other hand, those who haveattained some measure of Christ

realization come to the point where theydo not rise in righteous rebellion againstevil, nor take the offensive against it, noreven put themselves on the defensive,but where they stand still as the Masterdid before Pilate in the realization:"Thou couldest have no power at allagainst me, except it were given theefrom above," and there is no need forfear.

In the human scene, it may be perfectlynormal and natural to resort to "an eyefor an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"; itmay be quite legitimate to sue thosewho would sue us, or to stage a war

against a neighboring country. This,however, not only is not right in thespiritual realm, but unnecessarybecause the evils of this world are evilonly in the consciousness that acceptsthem as such. Wherever there is anacceptance of the universal belief in twopowers, there are two powers; andthere, two powers operate. Wherever aperson rises in spiritual consciousnessto a place where he recognizes that theOmnipotence of God—and I now giveyou that word Omnipotence to ponder

—makes any other so called power nopower, he discovers that there cannotbe Omnipotence and another power,there cannot be All power and anotherpower. He either deals withOmnipotence as Omnipotence by being

convinced of the nonpower of any otherappearance or condition, or he merelypays lip service to it and then singshymns to God Almighty, but "pass theammunition."

At any moment that a problem of anynature begins to come to your attention,instantly remember that you are not to



take up the sword not the mental swordor the physical sword but that you are torelax and resist not evil in the realizationof Omnipotence. The next three or fourdays of your life may be very miserablebecause when you begin a work of thiskind, it seems, as in the case of Jesuswhen he began his ministry and thedevil jumped up at him with threetemptations, that two or three devilsmanage to find you, and each of themhas two or three temptations for you. Sothe first few days may be really rugged.

Often you may have to say, " 'Get theebehind me, Satan.' I am not taking up

the sword; I am not resisting or refuting:I am standing fast in Omnipotence,standing fast in the realization that therecannot be two powers if Omnipotence isthe truth." Then it may be that theproblem becomes more insistent,although in one or two instances theproblem may disappear. Do not be tooheartened, however, if it does, becauseyou will still have those days aheadwhen a problem of your own or yourfamily, or a headline in a newspaper, willtempt you to accept a destructive powerin the world, an evil force or anerroneous condition, and you will becalled upon specifically and concretelyto bring to conscious remembranceonce again the word Omnipotence, Allpower, one Power not one power over

another power because there are nottwo powers in the spiritual kingdom, oneto be used against another. There isonly one Power, and the secret ofharmonious living is theacknowledgment and recognition of onePower.

The one great failing of the religiousworld has been believing that God wasa great power, sometimes even greatenough to heal disease or stop wars,depressions, and panics. Five thousandyears of history should have proved tous that God is not such a power. Goddoes not stop wars: this is broughtabout when the enemy runs out ofammunition. God does not heal disease:either some form of materia medicadoes this, or some spiritually endowedindividual who has come to therealization of Omnipotence andtherefore can look upon disease as the"arm of flesh" or nonpower. Always

remember that we are not dealing with agreat power or a power supreme overother powers: we are dealing with anindividual acknowledgment; we arestanding fast in one Power, besideswhich there are no other powers.

David and Goliath

The story of David and Goliathillustrates the power of the powerless,that power which to our sense is notpower. Goliath is represented as a giant,not only a physical giant, but one clad inan impregnable armor which no powercould penetrate. Nothing could reachhim; nothing could harm him; andnothing could destroy him because hewas so well armed that he wasinvincible and undefeatable by anyweapon that up to that time had beenconceived or formed. But whathappened to this invincibility? A littlemite of a fellow came along with a fewstones, and just one of those tiny littlestones ended the career of this mightygiant clothed in heavy armor. Couldanything be more fantastic than the



thought of a little stone leveling a giant,and a well protected giant at that?

This incident of David's encounter withGoliath contains within it a magicalsecret. David said, "I come to thee inthe name of the Lord of hosts." That isthe mystery; that is the miracle; that isthe magic; that is the secret! What hereally was saying was, "I do not come toyou with physical power. I do not cometo you with physical might. I have notcome with a weapon stronger than theone you have fashioned. No, I havecome to you with no weapon at all: Icome in the name of God."

When the disciples came to the Masterso proud and happy that they had beengiven power over the devil "even thedevils are subject unto us through thyname" they were rebuked, "Rejoice not,that the spirits are subject unto you; butrather rejoice, because your names arewritten in heaven." What did he meanwhen he told them not to rejoice that thedevils were subject unto them? Simplythat there was no power to be subjectunto them! There is no power to besubject unto you. You are living in thename and nature of God, and in thatname and nature there is no otherpower. That is why there is no weaponformed against you that can prosper:not because you have any defense, not

because you have any weapon overevil, but because you stand in the nameand nature of God.

Were you to admit that any person orinfluence on earth could be destructiveto you in any way, shape, manner, orform, you would most certainly have tofind some form of defense against it,

some form of power to use against it.But you have the mightiest defense ofall: the realization that there is nodestructive influence unless God be thedestructive influence to any conceptunlike Itself. The God power, the Godrealization in you, reveals that nothing inthe world of effect, nothing in the worldof concepts, nothing in the world ofpersons is power for good or for evil;and, therefore, you need nothing withwhich to overcome it.

Watch how this operates in your life assome threat comes to you from someindividual or thing. Stand fast in your

nature in the name and nature of Godrealizing that no weapon that is formed,no concept that is formed, has powerover the truth of being.

This same principle applies in thehealing work. If you have accepted thebelief of infectious and contagiousdiseases, inherited diseases, or anyother form of disease, watch whathappens when you give up your mentalweapons and stop fighting it. Watchwhat happens when you stand in thename and nature of God. There is noweapon, there is no belief, there is noconcept of man that can stand inopposition to the name and nature ofGod.

"The battle is the Lord's" —not yours ormine. We need no physical powers; weneed no mental powers: That which isthe least of them, a little stone, issufficient to the tearing down of thestronghold of the mighty Goliath even atiny little bit of a stone, nothingness.That which to the world represents nopower at all, a little stone, overthrows



the mightiest of powers, whether thatpower is physical or mental.

Spiritual power is self maintained, a self-created and a self-sustained power, andyou have only to let yourself be clothedwith this spiritual armor of truth and thento stand in its name and nature. Thespiritual armor of truth is not a weaponto be used against error: The spiritualarmor of truth is the realization ofOmnipotence, that creative Influencewhich not only created this universe, butwhich maintains and sustains Itself untoeternity.

If you acknowledge that you are someself other than the divine, you wither.You have then set up that which has tosurround itself with armor plate. Butwhen you acknowledge God as yourSelf, then let God be Its own defenseand use no physical or mental weapons.Human weapons are necessary forthose on the level of consciousness thatlive by might and by power, but thosewho come to that higher level of life bythe Spirit cannot use the world'sweapons. They learn that God is not apower over other powers. God is a Self-maintained and Self-sustained Power.That is the Power, and that Power islove: not a love that we use for apurpose, but a love which embraces uswithin Its law and maintains and

sustains our being.

Silence and Secrecy

You have to begin this moment to takean attitude in which you acceptOmnipotence, God as All, and thereforeanything and everything else as the"arm of flesh," temporal power,

nothingness. This you must do sacredlyand secretly. Do your praying secretlybecause unless you attain thisconsciousness within yourself you willnever be able to demonstrate itoutwardly and openly. Do not go aroundpreaching or teaching this; do notproselyte; do not try to tell yourneighbor, your friends, or your relativeshow wonderful this is. They would notbelieve you anyway.

Live this life within yourself until thefruitage of it begins to appear in yourexperience. Then when you are askedthe why and the wherefore of the

changes in your life or when you find areceptivity or a sincere interest, you maybegin to reveal it, but be sure that you,yourself, are demonstrating it before youbegin preaching or teaching it. Do notexpect anyone to believe merely whatyou say because as Emerson said,"What you are . . . thunders so that Icannot hear what you say. . . Beassured that no one is going to believea metaphysical or a mystical clichésimply because you repeat it. Fortunateindeed are you if you find those whobelieve it after you have demonstratedit.

The Master cautioned us to do ourpraying secretly, silently, and sacredly,reminding us that "thy Father which

seeth in secret himself shall reward theeopenly." So I say to you that every stepon the mystical path must be a secretone. It is not that we would keep itsecret from the world because of areluctance to share it, but we wouldkeep it secret within ourselves until wehave demonstrated it. Then we are



more than willing to share it with thatpart of the world that is led to us.

Always remember that there is a milk ofthe Word for babes, but there is also ameat of the Word for the mature.Remember not to cast your pearlsbefore swine.

To Whom Much Is Given,of Him Much Is Demanded

In this world, you will continually befaced with the appearance of twopowers, and the higher you go inspiritual realization, the more will you be

faced with it, because when you haveovercome the world for yourself, you willfind that you are attracting to you allthose who are themselves besiegedwith the problem of two powers; and somore than ever will you be called uponto stand fast.

If so be an individual ever again rises tothe height of Christ Jesus, he will findhimself with all the world's problems tobe solved. It is for this reason thatspiritual attainment is never given to usfor our own benefit. Of those who havemuch, much is demanded; and withevery bit of spiritual life that you attain,be assured that you will be called uponto bear more and more witness to it; youwill be called upon for more and moreservice to God. Never believe that thespiritual path leads to sitting in a cavesomewhere, hiding away from the world;never believe that it leads to a life ofindolence and ease.

Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way,which leadeth unto life, and few there bethat find it," but when you finally arrive,

the work is plentiful. The laborers arefew, very few, but the work is worldwide. With every degree of realizationyou attain, with every bit of confidenceyou have in Omnipotence, be preparedto be called upon to prove it, over andover again. The time will come whenthere are no major problems in your ownlife, and many, many years may go bywithout your ever being aware of amajor problem of your own, but you willbe drawing to you those of the worldwho are seeking the same freedom thatyou have found, and you will be calledupon to work with them to serve, toheal, and to teach but only in proportion

to your own demonstration.

This is one area in which knowing all thewords in all the books will not make youa good teacher. On the contrary, youmay know very few words and be thegreatest of teachers because theteaching is by demonstration rather thanby word of mouth.

The Kingdom of God Realized

To this word Omnipotence , let us addanother, Omnipresence, which is ofequal importance. Most people have anidea that God is somewhere up inheaven, in a holy mountain, in a holytemple, or in a holy teacher, but the realtruth is that God is closer to you thanyour very breathing, and nearer thanyour own hands and feet, and you donot have to go anywhere to find Him.You need only acknowledgment, therecognition of Omnipresence, of Godfilling all space throughout all time, therecognition that where you are is holyground.



If you mount up to heaven, you will findGod there, and if you make your bed inhell, you will find God there also. Whenyou walk through the "valley of theshadow of death," you will find Godthere with you, if you have taken thatword Omnipresence into yourconsciousness and lived with it. You willbe assailed from morning to night withthe belief that you cannot reach God,that God is somewhere other thanwhere you are, but now you will becalled upon with every one of thesetemptations to stop your searching, yourreaching out for God, and settle back inthe realization that where you are God

is because of Omnipresence.

Now watch the miracles that begin totake place within a very few days as youlearn to relax in the realization ofOmnipresence and Omnipotence, asyou learn to relax from taking up thesword against some enemy: a physical,mental, moral, or financial one, oragainst any other mythological beastthat walks the earth. Remember that allbeasts are mythological because Godnever made one.

When you have Omnipotence andOmnipresence together in one place atthe same time within your ownconsciousness you have the kingdom ofGod realized within you. The kingdom of

God is neither lo here nor lo there; it isnot in holy mountains; it is not in holytemples; it is not in holy teachers: "Thekingdom of God is within you";therefore, relax from the strain, relaxfrom striving, and acknowledgeOmnipresence, the presence of Godwhere you are:

Neither life nor death can separate mefrom God. I am in the presence of God,and as long as I am in the presence ofGod, it matters not whether I am whatthe world calls alive or dead. I cannot beseparated from the life of God, the loveof God, the consciousness of God, fromthe God being Itself.

ACROSS THE DESK

Long ago meditation was discoveredand practiced in the Orient, but itbecame a lost art years before it everreached the Western world. Now thatthe secret has been rediscovered, it is

being introduced in the West andreintroduced into the East.

The original discoverer of the art ofmeditation is unknown. He may havebeen a traveler on the desert who spenthis time in contemplating the mysteriesof the heavens, one perhaps who knewthe stars and some of their secrets; hemay have known and contemplated themysteries of the Sphinx and thepyramids; he may have been afisherman and known the joy ofcontemplating the mysteries of the sea,or a shepherd like Moses,contemplating the mysteries of nature,sensing the atmosphere of themountains and marveling at the fertilityof flocks and fields.

Lost in such contemplation, the miracleoccurred, the climax of meditation wasreached, and an inner releaseexperienced which may have taken theform of a deep breath or sigh, or as of aweight or burden falling from hisshoulders. Undoubtedly, there was asense of inner peace or mild



exhilaration, and then a sense of beingat peace with all the world.

A continuation of such experienceswould eventually result in a completerealization of oneness with all being:with trees and plants, with the birds ofthe air and the fish of the sea, or it mayhave lifted him into conscious onenesseven with the stars or with the lightningand thunder of a summer storm.

Meanwhile, a great mystery revealeditself to the explorer in this realm ofWithinness: he realized that manoriginally was pure spiritual being,

drawing his life, substance, law, andcontinuity from God, but after the mistarose and man lost his vision of God, hebecame a lone, lost individual,wandering like the Prodigal, but neverreaching home, never reaching hisdivine consciousness and fulfillment.

Now, through an inner communion withSomething greater than himself and anouter communion with every form of life,he was no longer alone or lonesome.The great mystery of Adam was solved:not getting a mate from his rib, but fromhis heart under the rib, really from thatfeeling usually attributed to the heart,that feeling of love that wells up inmeditation, for it is from this feeling oflove within man, which comes only

when in contemplation and communionwith God, that all the issues of life comeforth: companionship, supply, safety,security, peace, joy, health, andcompleteness.

Contemplating the mysteries of life, itslaw and beauty, its rhyme and rhythm,its harmonies and moods, led his

attention back to his Source, to therealm of the real, the kingdom of Godwithin him, and he experienced theultimate of meditation in an actualcommunion with the source and fount ofall Being. Then came the release fromall care and the solution to all problems,followed by the fulfillment of all good inhis experience even without takingthought.

The original wanderer who discoveredthe secret of life and its harmonious and

joyous experience then probably soughtout others who were lost on the desertof human existence to whom he might

impart the mystery of resurrection fromthe tomb of mortality, the great secret ofthe ascension of soul and body toimmortal heights. And so the great art ofmeditation was discovered, taught, andlived.

Somewhat sorrowfully, the teacher ofthis mystery, like the Master who camelater, learned that, whereas he wouldgive his "pearl of great price" to allmankind, like Jerusalem, they "wouldnot." Only the few were receptive, butthose few became a people set apart, a

joyous people, successful and brilliantbecause they had all of God upon whichto draw for wisdom, light, love, andattainment.

As it became more generally known thatthese few contemplatives in the worldhad access to the peace and prosperityof the world, those not spiritually attunedbegan to look upon meditation as ameans of going within solely for thepurpose of drawing forth the good thingsof life: supply, companionship, home,and health. And so a practice was



begun of turning within in an attempt todraw forth things, and eventually the artof pure meditation was lost, andmeditation became an incomprehensiblemystery.

The real mystery of meditation is thatmeditation is not a means of gettingthings from the divine center that iswithin man. Seeking to get, achieve, orattain from the heavenly Kingdom canonly result in the loss of the little wealready have. Meditation is not a meansto an end. Meditation is a contemplationof the deep things of spiritual reality, ofthe rhythm of the universe, a dwelling in

the Kingdom within, and then as itsclimax an inner communion with theSpirit of man, a contact with his Soul, a

revelation of the truth behind themysteries of life.

The miracle is that without desire,without taking thought, the Presencewithin goes before to make "the crookedplaces straight," to prepare a mansionmany mansions. The divine invisiblePresence becomes visible as form asthe very body of all good. A thousandmay fall at one's left and ten thousand atthe right, but never do the problems ofthis world intrude into theconsciousness of those who live inmeditation, in a perpetual inner

contemplation, a true communion withthe inner Self or Source.

S I XContemplative

Meditation

The entire harmony of your life and thesuccess of the activities of your lifedepend upon your remembrance andpractice of meditation.

A meditation should be directed towardthe realization of oneness with God. Youshould not be thinking of any desireddemonstration or of any desired good inyour life, of any particular person,circumstance, or condition. Your entireattention should be given to therealization of God, always bearing inmind that the kingdom of God is withinyou, neither lo here nor lo there, but

within you. You will never find it bylooking for it in any place other thanwithin your own being.

Once you realize that what you areseeking is within, you will give yourentire attention, thought, and activity tothat point within you: not within yourbody, but within your consciousness. Donot think of any part of your body, of anyorgan or function of the body: think onlyof some point within your consciousnessand remember that somewhere withinyou there is a point of contact, a pointwherein you and your Father becomeconsciously one. You and your Fatherare already one, but that relationship ofoneness is of no benefit to you untilthere is a conscious realization of it.

There are far too many students who,because they have been taught that "Iand my Father are one" and that theyare children of God, believe that this isall that is necessary to bring harmonyinto their experience. This is not true.There must be an actual contact; theremust be an actual experience of



oneness. Something must take placewithin them that brings the assurancethat they have realized the Presence.

Let Each MeditationBe an Individual Experience

This awareness of having made acontact may take any number of forms.At times when this contact is made, it isfollowed by a deep breath, or there maybe an awareness of receiving animpression as if some message werebeing given to you, or there may evenbe the still small voice that sometimes isaudible. We can never know in what

way the realization of God's presencewill be made evident to us, andtherefore we must never outline how it isto appear or what form it should take.

We must never expect to see visions orbelieve that it is necessary to hear avoice. We must never outline what theexperience will be because it can takeplace in one form today and in anothertomorrow; it can appear one day oneway and another day another way; but ifwe are outlining in our mind what shouldhappen, we are trying to mold theexperience according to somepreconceived idea instead of letting theexperience unfold itself to ourawareness.

As you meditate, remember that youmust have no object, no purpose, nogoal, and no desire other than theexperience of God contact or Godrealization. You must not have in mindany object that you wish, or any desireddemonstration. You must never have inmind the healing of mind, body, lack, orfear. Never, never, must you have any

goal or any object other than theattainment of God realization and therecognition of the Presence within you.

A Contemplative Formof Meditation on God

If you cannot quickly feel at peace witha kind of listening attitude, then youmight begin with a meditation in whichyou contemplate God and the things ofGod. You might begin with the wordGod, letting anything come into yourthought on the subject of God thatwishes to unfold:

God is closer to me than breathing. Godis already where I am, for "I and myFather are one," and not even life ordeath can separate me from God.

God is the very substance of my form.Even my body is the temple of Godbecause God formed it.

God formed this entire temple of theuniverse: "The earth is the Lord's, andthe fullness thereof." God made it in theimage and likeness of His ownsubstance.

God is really my identity, constituting myindividuality. If I am a painter or amusician, God has given me theinspiration and the ability and the skill; if

I am a novelist, God has given me theideas with which I work and the skill toexpress them; if I am in a business or aprofession, God is the intelligence thatgoverns my activity.

As a matter of fact, if I am healthy, it isbecause God is the health of mycountenance. God is my fortress. I live



and move and have my being in God,and that is why we are inseparable andindivisible.

God in me is the kingdom of God withinme, and in this oneness is that divinerelationship of Father and son.

"Son, thou art ever with me, and all thatI have is thine." My sonship with Godentitles me to all that God is and all thatGod has, not by virtue of my beinggood, not by virtue of my deserving orearning it because in my humancapacity I can hardly be worthy of Godbut because I am the son of God,

because the relationship between Godand me is a relationship of oneness,because God has decreed, "Son, thouart ever with me, and all that I have isthine." Because of this, God's grace ismine.

God's grace is not something to beearned or won or deserved; God's graceis not something that takes place in thefuture: God's grace is functioning withinme now. God's grace functions tosupport, maintain, and sustain me.God's grace functions as my inspiration,my skill, my ability, and my integrity.

I have no integrity of my own of which toboast, no honesty of my own, nomorality of my own nothing of which I

can boast because God constitutes theintegrity of my being. God constitutesmy capacity for work, and Godconstitutes my capacity for thought andfor inspiration. "Son . . . all that I have isthine"; therefore, God is my all capacity,my infinite capacity.

God constitutes the infinite nature of my

supply. My supply is not limited to myactivity, to my knowledge or wisdom, towhat I can earn, or to what anyone cangive me. My supply is limited only to theinfinite nature of God's gift: " 'Son, thouart ever with me, and all that I have isthine': thou art heir, joint heir, to all that Ihave." My supply is as infinite as God'scapacity is to bestow.

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulnessthereof." All this earth, the skies and thesun and the moon and the stars, and allthe fish of the sea, and all the birds ofthe air, all the perfume of the flowers— all of this is mine because "Son, thou art

ever with me, and all that I have isthine."

God is closer to me than breathing. Godis with me if I mount up to heaven; Godis with me if I make my bed in hell; Godis with me if "I walk through the valley ofthe shadow of death." I need fear no evilfor God's presence is with me, andGod's presence goes before me tomake the crooked places straight. God'spresence goes before me to preparemansions for me; God's presence is thevery meat, wine, and water of my dailylife; God's presence is the assurance ofmy infinite supply.

Because God is my hiding place, God'spresence is my protection, my safety,

and my security. I find my safety andsecurity within me; I carry it with me inlife and in death, because I carry withme the presence of God.

In this meditation, all that you have doneis to contemplate God: the presence ofGod, the allness of God, and yourrelationship to God. You have dwelt in a



continuous contemplation of God'sallness, God's mightiness, God's grace,God's love; and having come to the endof your thoughts for the moment, younow become quiet and wait for God tospeak to you. You keep silent while yourears are open as if the still small voicewere about to speak to you. This voicemay speak in actual words; it may comeforth merely as an impression or afeeling of God's presence; or it mayleave you with nothing more than adeep breath.

In one way or another, however, withinthe next twenty, thirty, or forty seconds,

you will feel It and have a conviction thatyou are not alone, but that there is aPresence within you. The moment youhave gained that awareness, you havemade your conscious contact with Godand have attained the consciousrealization of your oneness with God.Your oneness has always existed, butnow you have taken the further and allimportant step of attaining consciousoneness or a conscious realization ofyour oneness.

Fulfillment Is Attainedby Conscious Oneness

This is when the miracle really beginsbecause in the moment that you attainconscious realization of your onenesswith God, you also attain your onenesswith all forms of good necessary to yourexperience. These, then, begin to cometo you without taking thought for them.In other words, when you attainconscious oneness with God, you attainoneness with the evidence of yoursupply; you attain oneness withcompanionship; you attain oneness with

home; you attain oneness withemployment, with inspiration, art,literature, or music. You attain onenesswith everything necessary to thefulfillment of your life.

The scriptural promise, "In thy presenceis fullness of joy; at thy right hand thereare pleasures for evermore," becomesliterally true in the experience of everyperson who attains conscious onenesswith God because he then attains hisoneness with his rightful companionship,his rightful home, his rightful sense ofsupply, his rightful business, his rightfulartistic, literary, or musical skill.

Whatever it is that represents fulfillmentin his life is attained by virtue ofconscious oneness with God.

It has been demonstrated for thirtyyears in the experience of our studentsthat as they have attained thisconscious realization of their onenesswith God, events in the outer worldbegan to change, and either newsources of supply, new sources ofactivity, or new professions wereopened to them. Call it what you will, bywhatever name or form, these studentshave found that fulfillment began to beexpressed and eventually there came asense of true completeness.

In the consciously realized presence of

God is the fulfillment of life. You maynever have painted a picture in your life,but if you have dreamed of doing so,you may do so now; you may neverhave had music in your life, but if youhave dreamed of it, you will have it as apart of your experience now. In otherwords, something within changes theouter experience.



As human beings, we live completelycut off from God, exemplifying theMaster's statement: "If a man abide notin me, he is cast forth as a branch, andis withered; and men gather them, andcast them into the fire, and they areburned." As human beings we have onlyour own wisdom and experience, ourown physical strength, health, anddollars, and all of these are limited. Butthe moment that we adopt the teachingof the fifteenth chapter of John ofabiding in Me and letting My wordsabide in you, then we are as a branch ofa tree that is one with the vine, and all

that God is, is flowing through that vineinto expression through us, and we nowhave conscious contact with the infiniteStorehouse which is the creative,sustaining, and maintaining Powerbehind this universe.

In spring it is particularly easy toobserve the fullness of the beds ofgrass, the leaves on the trees, the budsand the blossoms, and the abundanceof all these. A few months previouslythere was no green grass, there wereno leaves, no buds or blossoms: all wasbarrenness. Then suddenly there isfullness. How could this happen exceptthrough the activity of an invisiblePresence and Power which, at the rightseason of the year, bursts forth into

visibility as new grass, new buds, newblossoms, new fruit, and fills all naturewith an infinite, beautiful, practical, anduseful abundance? And all of this froman invisible Withinness unseen to thehuman eye.

This same unseen, infinitemanufacturing plant operates in your

consciousness. It is invisible, and whileyou can never become aware of itthrough your physical senses, you canbecome aware of the fruitage of it asyou begin to see more abundant supplyand happier relationships in every areaof your life. When this occurs, you willbegin to realize that this is the outerevidence of that invisible Essence,Spirit, or Storehouse which is likewiseproviding all nature with fulfillment. It isthis that fills rivers, lakes, and oceanswith fish and the air with birds, but thereason all these forms of life receivetheir abundance and experience theirfulfillment in due season without ever

taking thought is because there hasbeen no break in their relationship withthe invisible Source.

With man this is different. With manthere has been a break, and as ahuman being, he has no contact withGod. He is not under "the law of God,neither indeed can be," until he restoresto himself his original relationship withhis Father. Then his life will change justas did that of the Prodigal Son when hereturned to his father's house and wasgiven the robe and the ring of divinesonship.

Beginning the Journey Backto the Father's House

When we realize our barrenness, thefutility of human life, and how difficultand what a struggle life is physically andmentally, and how little help we seem tobe getting from any divine Source, webegin to wonder if there is a God or ifthere is any way to approach God. Thenbegins our return journey to our Father'shouse, a journey that is accomplished



within our consciousness, not by goingto holy mountains or holy temples orholy teachers. All these may play a partin our lives, but they are not essential.

The first essential is the realization thatwithin us is the kingdom of God and thatthis Presence and Power must becontacted or found within us. From thatpoint on, we will be led along the way:we may be led to certain books; we maybe led to certain teachings or teachers,all of whom can play an important part inour unfoldment. We may eventually findthat within us something almostindescribable takes place, and we may

become aware that angels areministering unto us not the featheredkind, but nonetheless angels, divineinspirations—and that which werecognize as spiritual help of one sort oranother. We may find that we are beingguided and being led in ways that areentirely foreign to us ways we neverknew existed.

That is because now the son of God iswithin us, the son of God which is ourreal identity, our real Selfhood. Theouter expression which is called Williamor Mary or Martha is but the outerseeming sense of the reality which isour invisible Withinness. In other words,in this human sense of life, we are twopersons not one. The Master said: "I

and my Father are one. . . but myFather is greater than I"; and Paul said:"I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."They both meant the same thing. Theyboth meant that there is this outerperson whom we call Jesus or Paul, orMary or Martha, but there is also thegreater Sell which is the real Self, thespiritual identity, the son of God. The

moment we make contact with that, weno longer live our own lives, but we findthat there is a spiritual Presence, aspiritual Power, a spiritual Guide, alwayscoming through to us provided we giveIt the opportunity.

Admittedly, it is undoubtedly moredifficult to live the spiritual life today thanit was many years ago, because neverbefore have there been so manyoutward distractions to keep us from ourperiods of inner communion with God.There is a price tag on the life of theSpirit, and the price is the setting asideof sufficient periods in the day and the

night for inner communion. This innercommunion begins with contemplativemeditation, leading eventually to adeeper meditation in which there are nolonger statements of a contemplativenature, but there is a communion inwhich we receive impartations from thedepths within us. This is God speakingto us instead of our assuring andreassuring ourselves.

The contemplative form of meditation isa necessary step for most persons andone that must be used for a long time,until the inner communion is so wellestablished that one can instantly settleinto an inner peace and immediatelybecome receptive to the impartationsthat unfold from within one's own being.

This in time leads to a further step inwhich we go from a communion withGod to an actual, realized oneness withGod, and in this there are no longerwords or thoughts, but only a divinestate of Being in which one realizesoneself as the life of all that exists.

Many students of metaphysics have



been accustomed to thinking of prayerand treatment as a means of attainingsomething through God, but in this workof The Infinite Way that is never done.On this path, at no time is truth everused to gain any end or for the purposeof making any demonstrations; at notime is God considered an instrumentwhereby to get something. In TheInfinite Way, there is no purpose or goalbeyond God realization, and once Godrealization has been attained, thatrealization takes care of everything thathappens in life.

In the preceding chapter, the word

Omnipotence brought forth the idea thatif there is Omnipotence or All power,then there cannot be any other power.With this realization, we instantly loseour fear of material conditions, forces,or powers, and even our fear of mentalforces or powers. We rest in theassurance that since there is but onepower we have nothing to fear. The socalled evils of the world have no poweror presence, and they should not befought, nor should any attempt be madeto be rid of them. They should berecognized as illusory appearances.

Just as the concept of Omnipotencedissolves our fear of other powers andpermits us to rest in the assurance ofone power, so does the word

Omnipresence allay our fear of anyother presence because, as a matter offact, there cannot be All presence andanother presence. When you grasp thereal significance of Omnipotence andOmnipresence, you have set yourselfapart from any of the evils of this world,which are instantly recognized asappearance, illusion, or maya—call it

what you will.

Omniscience ChangesYour Concept of Prayer

What really changes your life, however,is an understanding of Omnisciencebecause this changes your wholeconcept of prayer. There are fiftycenturies of erroneous prayers in ourbackground, fifty centuries of prayingamiss. There have been only a few briefyears of praying aright in the whole ofthe last fifty centuries, and therefore, wereally have some overcoming to do inorder to correct the erroneous sense of

prayer into which we were born andunder which we have been brought up.

Think of the meaning of Omniscience;look it up in the dictionary and try to geta full and complete understanding of Allwisdom and All knowledge. Then thinkof what you have really been doingwhen you have prayed to God and toldGod what you need, and sometimeseven on what day you needed it. Thinkof what you have been doing when youhave been asking God to heal your childor some dear soul who needs it, as ifGod were not omniscience. Think ofwhat you have been doing when youpray God to send you supply.

Did not Jesus know what he was talkingabout when he said: "Your heavenlyFather knoweth that ye have need of allthese things. . . . for it is your Father'sgood pleasure to give you thekingdom"? Did not Jesus know aboutprayer when he said, "Take no thoughtfor your life, what ye shall eat, or whatye shall drink; nor yet for your body,



what ye shall put on" ? Are we notviolating that teaching when we pray toGod for supply, for home, forcompanionship, for a vacation, or for anautomobile? Are we not really payingonly lip service to an omniscient God?

The word Omniscience reminds us ofwhat we have been doing in ourprayers. Have we not been guilty oftelling God something? Have we notbeen reminding God of something?Have we not been asking something ofGod that we think God does not knowanything about? Have we not beentelling God of someone who needs

Him?

Think what you do when you go to Godwith anything that you wish to convey tothis Omniscience, to this All wisdom, Allknowledge, All power, All presence; andthen you will quickly learn how totransform your prayer into a righteousprayer, a prayer that is a resting back inGod in an inner assurance that "beforethey call, I will answer; and while theyare yet speaking, I will hear," that beforeyou know your need He knows it, and itis His "good pleasure to give you thekingdom." Think of how this will changeyour prayer as you learn to look uponGod as the great All wisdom, Allpresence, and All power.

Suppose that we had to remind God toput apples on apple trees, peaches onpeach trees, or berries on berry bushes;or suppose that we had to remind Godthat we need or do not need so muchrain, or remind Him every evening that itshould become dark and the starsshould come out and the moon. God isdoing all these things without our advice

or petitions, and can we not trust Himenough to know our needs withoutreminding Him of them?

If God knows enough to continue to putthe fish in the sea and the birds in theair, if God knows enough to keep thetides in their places, ebbing and flowingon schedule, if God knows enough tokeep this earth and all the other planetsin their orbits, surely God knows ourneed, and if God has the love to supplyall the needs of this world, God hasenough love to supply us with ours. Onlyour egotism would interfere with ourreceiving it, only the egotism that

believes we know our need better thanGod does, only the egotism thatbelieves we have more love for ourchildren than God has for His: only suchrank egotism can prevent the free flowof God's grace to us.

Once we have overcome this egotisticsense, we can relax in the realizationthat God is omniscience, omnipresence,and omnipotence; and we can stoptaking thought for our life, for what weshall eat, or what we shall drink. We canstop taking thought and begin toacknowledge God, and as weacknowledge Him in all our ways,keeping our thoughts stayed on Him, wefind that God is operating in ourexperience and that as a need arises it

is met usually before we know that theneed is there.

So it is that prayer is our point of contactwith God; it is through prayer that weestablish our conscious oneness withGod; it is through prayer that weestablish our conscious awareness ofGod's presence; it is through prayer that



we acknowledge that even "though Iwalk through the valley of the shadow ofdeath, I will fear no evil: for thou art withme"; it is through prayer that we rest inthe assurance of God's presence, God'sgrace, and God's law. Then we relaxand find that this invisible Presencedoes for us exactly what it does for thetrees and the grass in their seasons,and for all the rest of this vast universe.

Practicing the Presence

When we are acknowledging God asOmnipotence, Omnipresence,Omniscience, we are practicing the

presence of God, keeping our mindstayed on God, and we are setting upwithin ourselves an inner stillness thatlater becomes a receptivity to thepresence of God, Itself, to that whichhas been called the birth of the Christ.

The birth of the Christ is that moment inour individual experience when nothingbecomes tangibly something, when,where there was a lack of something, allof a sudden there now becomes evidenta Presence, tangible and real, a power,a companion, a savior, a guide. Fromthat moment on, we consciously abidein the Presence.

Because of the realized presence ofGod within us, it would be impossible forthere to be any strife with anyone. In thehuman picture we may disagree, butthere could be no conflict of a reallyharmful or destructive nature betweenus if even one of us had realized thePresence. As this Presence lives in us,it becomes impossible for us to take upa sword, to hate or envy, be jealous,malicious, or destructive.

The entire secret of peace on earth isthe establishing in our consciousness ofthis realized Presence, which acts as aleveler in our consciousness, making usall equally children of God. This makesit possible to realize what the Mastermeant when he said, "Call no man yourfather upon the earth: for one is yourFather, which is in heaven" —onecreative Principle.

So we learn not to call our country, ourcountry, or our flag, our flag. We give itits due, but we recognize that we are allof one spiritual household. This does

not mean only those on our particularpath. It means that every individual onthe face of this globe actually has butone Father, one creative Principle, andin our recognition of that we arebrothers. The fact that there may becultural, educational, or economic levelsthat separate us at the moment hasnothing to do with the basic truth that weare equally one insofar as our spiritualrelationship is concerned. We all havebut one creative Principle, one Father;and some day we shall all begin to actas though we really believed that.

If we are to do that, it will be necessaryfor us to change our concepts of prayerand begin to treat God as if thatomnipotent, omnipresent, and

omniscient God really were closer to usthan breathing. Our function is to rest inGod. But we must never try to bend Godto our will or try to get God to dosomething for us that we want, becausewe will not succeed. Whenever we aretempted to try to get God to dosomething, remember that we are tryingto bend Him to our will and then we will



be released from any such paganisticconcept of prayer, and we will pray:

Mold me to Thy will; bend me to Thywill; make me yield myself unto Thy willso that Thy will, and not mine, be donein me. Let me not have a will of my own;let me not have a desire; let me nothave a wish: Let inc completely yieldmyself to Omniscience, Omnipotence,and Omnipresence, and be a beholderof what takes place in my life as I permitan All knowing, All power, All presencegovern my life.

ACROSS THE DESK

Resurrection, in its mystical sense,means resurrecting the Son of God outof the tomb of the physical senses. It isalso resurrection in the sense of risingout of the physical sense of body intothe realization of spiritualconsciousness as governing all form.

The revelation of life lived by Graceinstead of under the law consists of therevelation of the consciousness of theindividual as a law of resurrection,healing, and protection to the body,business, home, and well being in everyform, and we begin to see howconsciousness the consciousness of theindividual—even without taking thought

and without being directed, becomesthe law of harmony unto our experience.

the contemplative life - part 1-2

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