#13 – Wisdoms of the Infinite Way
Be sure that your prayer is not an attempt to influence God.
From the book – The Infinite Way
Joel S. Goldsmith

From – Tape 604-1
1951 Second Portland Series /

A Higher Meditation – Part 2

By Joel Goldsmith
And so, we learn from these experiences, from these illustrations, that the Master was taking us back to the invisible realm, to that which no man has ever seen, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled with the physical senses, but which any man may perceive with his inner spiritual faculties, and there learn, not only of the realities, but of the cause of all that exists, and thereby bring out harmony.
You see, it is only in proportion as we see these objects as something in and of themselves, that we can come into accident, that we can come into disease, that we can come into lack and limitation, because we see them separate and apart from the substance that brought them into expression.
Once, however, you learn this idea of perceiving that the visible is but the appearing in form, as form, of that which caused it, created it, gave it life, animation, beauty, then you will see that because the form is inseparable and indivisible from its cause, that even the form is eternal. There is our great lesson!
We have, even in this modern age, deaths—whether you call them passing on or call it dying is of little meaning—to the world they are deaths. And why? Because we have accepted the belief that this form that you see is me, and is my life, and it is separate and apart from the universal life which gave it its expression, its form, color, figure.
All that it has—even its intelligence and compassion and life and love—all of those things that are embodied as me—we see them as separate and apart from their source, and therefore, we say, “Why in three score years and ten they’ll be all worn out and die.”
Whereas, the moment we begin to perceive this invisible Essence that is actually the life, law, principle, cause, substance, activity of my individual life, then my individual life and that universality become one, and it becomes immortal and eternal, and it’s impossible even for the form to disappear or die.
Now, our great question is: How do we attain that consciousness which realizes the immortality and the infinite nature of its own being, your being and mine, since we know that we are infinite being, if infinity is the measure of our cause?
And we’ve learned that one of these ways is meditation—and meditation has never been an easy subject to learn, to understand in the Occidental world, and in these days, even less so in the Oriental world, because they have drifted away from the original understanding of the meaning of meditation.
And so, we are going to meditate now on a higher plane than we have done before. I am going to ask you to, instead of closing your eyes fully, close them about three-quarters. Leave a slit there that you can see through, and look up here at this branch, at these leaves, the buds and flowers.
And as you meditate, close your eyes about three-quarters—just leave enough room to see this, don’t think of persons and don’t think of problems and don’t think of anything in this outer world.
We want to go now into the fourth dimension, to the invisible realm. We want to go into that which the world can neither see, hear, taste, touch, nor smell with its physical senses. And so in looking at this, try in your mind, to visualize the forces of nature that operated to bring this forth.
Remember, first of all, the seed planted in the ground, just a seed, nothing but a seed, and planted where—in dirt, plain dirt—and out of that combination of a seed and plain dirt—look what has sprung. Now, what miracle has wrought this? What miracle of invisible activity, an activity that couldn’t even be followed or seen with the most powerful microscope.
Just think of this invisible life force that first touched the seed and broke it open and enabled little shoots to take root in the ground. And imagine the moisture from the soil going through those shoots and feeding it, and then the minerals, or other elements, in the earth that were drawn into these little shoots to feed them, and watch the product as we next have an entire root system, and then the shoots coming up above the ground, and all the rest of the development of the plant on up into a tree, branches, leaves, buds, flowers, and every single bit of this visibility coming out of where?
The invisible: all through an activity unseen to our senses, unknown to us really, humanly, and then marvel, and if you like, be a fool, and say, “There is no God.” Or otherwise look and say, “Yes, only God, only the Infinite Invisible, only the Unknown and the Unknowable could produce, out of a tiny seed and a patch of dirt this beauty, this color, this form, this grace.
And go from there to our little figure, and try to visualize that artist sitting there with a blank piece of ivory—oh, an ivory that he has first probably spent hours or days selecting for its color, for its beauty, for its purity, for its grain—think of the love that went into that choice first of that piece of ivory.
And then, of the fondling of it in his hands, and he commences to perceive, in his mind, the form that is to appear in ivory. Think of, as you look at that figure, think what love he must have had of this idea of Buddhahood.
Remember, he wasn’t carving a man since Buddha isn’t a man. Buddha is enlightenment. Buddha is a state of divine consciousness. Buddha is what we of the Occident call the “Christ,” the spirit of God in man—the spiritual son.
And here is this artist pondering the idea of the Christ, of the spiritual activity, and wanting to bring it forth into form so as to give to others the delight also of seeing that which symbolizes the invisible Christ, that which shows forth in visible form the invisible qualities and activities of the Christ.
Perhaps some of you have seen the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, and can see what I mean when I say that there is no such thing as liberty in an outlined form. Liberty is a quality of being, and there was an artist filled, probably, heart overflowing, with the idea of freedom, liberty, joy. He had to give expression in some form that you and I could enjoy, of what he was inwardly visualizing, visioning, enjoying. And he wanted us to share that joy, but of course, he couldn’t take us into his inside, that we might see what he was seeing and feeling in the name of liberty and freedom, and so he brought it forth in tangible form as the statue of a woman holding a lamp with stars in her hair.
And there again you have the idea. Look at the Statue of Liberty, but look through it, and you’ll see the miracle of love and of life that appears now outwardly as this great figure.
And so we do with this little one. Just imagine a man with a divine ideal of Christhood, wanting to share it with us in tangible form, and he brings it forth as this figure sitting on the lotus. The lotus, you know, is symbolic of spiritual purity and spiritual integrity.
And therefore, he has to give this figure a foundation, and he has given it the lotus, seated on the lotus, seated within its own spiritual integrity and purity. That is the idea that is conveyed to us from the invisible to the visible.
Now all meditation should take this form. All meditation should take you back from the realm of the visible, to the realm of the invisible, where you can ponder the divine idea of God; where you can contemplate the divine reality, God; where you can enjoy, thrill within you to the idea of the great first Cause; where you can fill your consciousness with the realization of the meaning of divine love—a divine love that appears outwardly in these infinite wonderful forms, appears as the divine grace, beauty, grandeur.
This form of meditation may even look at a sunset, a mountain, a starry sky, looking at it, and looking through it, and again realizing the sky showeth forth His handiwork, the earth manifest His glory.
All of the invisible, all of the love and the skill and the art and the beauty and the integrity of the invisible appearing to us in wondrous visible form. Without this invisible there would be no visible, and without the continued activity, and without the continued divine love, there would be no continuity of this magnificent creation called man and the universe.
We live by grace—by grace of an invisible presence, an invisible power, that is forever pouring Itself out as creation, as manifestation, as expression, just as this artist has poured himself out as this beautiful little figure, just as nature has poured itself out in this beautiful branch, flower, bud, leaves.
This meditation may likewise look upon man, woman, child, animal. Looking at them, taking no note of their faults or failures, look through them to their divine origin, to all the forces of the invisible that join together to bring about this visible expression of intelligence, life, love, form, joy.
Think of the qualities of that invisible that are embodied in every individual just as looking at this plant. Think of all the qualities of the invisible, moisture of the rain, light and warmth of the sun, minerals and substances of the earth that have been poured into this plant—and now appear as this plant.
And then think of all of the qualities of life and of love and of truth, of joy, and of compassion. Think of all the great wisdom that God has embodied in every man, woman, child, animal on the face of this globe.
God has embodied Itself. God has embodied Its own qualities in individual being. You won’t see this by looking at a man, woman, or child’s figure any more than you can perceive all that we have perceived in this ivory figure, all that we have perceived in this little branch of a plant. You won’t see all of this by looking them in the face alone, but by looking through them to the invisible cause. Then you see all this grandeur appearing.
End Part 2
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