1960 Maui Work

Tape 369 Side 1

Purpose, Method, Attainment of the Contemplative Life

By – Joel Goldsmith

Part 4 of 5

 

        Let me illustrate that with just a simple healing principle. An individual catches cold, and it is either because of the weather, or because of germs in the air. And he is paying the price of “cause and effect:” we have a “cause,” bad weather—we have an “effect,” a cold; we have a “cause,” germs—and then we have an “effect,” a cold.

        Now, in spiritual healing work you set aside both the “cause” and the “effect,” by removing the person, the patient, from the law of “cause and effect”. . . by re-establishing them with their source, which is God. When God is functioning in them, there is neither cause nor effect.

        Now, this same thing happens, it is very interesting to watch cases of

menopause, because there you have a very distinct cause, and that is age. This age, this period of change is the cause. And the upset physiological condition is the effect.

        Now this must always be true of every human being, male or female,

as long as they are abiding in the world of “cause and effect”. . . which means acknowledging a parent on earth. Acknowledge a parent on earth and you cannot avoid the days of menopause.

        But, begin to realize “there is but one Father,” “one parent,” “a spiritual source of life,” and “I am ONE with that source”. . . and you begin to end the whole of cause, and when you do that, you end effect. Remember, human birth is cause, and the passing of time is cause—then menopause is the effect. And the only way you can eradicate it is to eradicate the karmic cause, which is birth.

        Now why did the Master say, knowing full well that we all have human parents, why did he say “call no man on earth your father?” For this reason: we do have human parents, but they are not the creators of our life. Therefore we do not actually inherit the qualities of our parentage—we inherit the qualities of our Father, which is Spirit. Therefore we have spiritual being, spiritual health, spiritual laws governing life and body.

        So you overcome the law of cause and effect in every condition that has to do with either heredity or the passing of time by re-establishing yourself in the tree of life. Of course you are denying your human parentage, you are acknowledging them merely as the instruments through which you were born—but not the cause of your birth. Behind them had to be a principle of life operating, and it’s a spiritual principle of life—therefore, your heritage is Spirit.

        Now, every time that you are faced with some condition of humanness—human life one way or another—you need only visualize the tree of life, realize yourself as a branch of that tree. And gradually you’ll find this, when you look at a tree from a distance, you don’t dissect it, and say “I’m looking at the trunk, I’m looking at the branches, I’m looking at the roots, I’m looking at leaves.” You’d look at it and you’d say “that is a tree!” And so you will eventually come to see that you’re really not merely a branch—but really you are part of the whole tree. You are really—the tree is constituted of you, therefore you’re more tree than you are branch.

        And so it is you will find, that as this… the qualities, the quantities, the nature of the tree manifests itself in every branch. If the nature of a tree is apple tree, the branches will have apples. If the nature of the tree is papaya, the branches will have papayas. And therefore, since the nature of the tree of life is spiritual, immortality, eternality, infinity—that is the nature of your being.

        But now, this is the Truth that will make you free. But it won’t make you free, except in proportion to your consciously knowing it. Therefore, it is in the degree that you practice contemplation, it is in the degree that you can remember, morning, noon or night, whenever you’re faced with anything of a human nature—quickly realize the tree of life, and then smile.

        You don’t have to go into long treatments, you need only remember:

“ah, whatever the tree of life is, I am, for we are ONE; all the Glory of the tree is made manifest on all of the branches.”

        And then, when you are bearing fruit richly, when you are enjoying your good health or your abundant supply, it becomes necessary to be very, very humble and to realize: this is not of me, “if I bear witness to myself I bear witness to a lie”. . . this is the Grace of God that is manifesting ITSELF as my experience.

        In other words, whatever of good happens to an individual on the contemplative path, is really for God’s Glory—not for yours or for mine. The fruitage on a tree is not for the glory of a branch, but for the life that sent the fruit into existence.

        Therefore, in our work you will notice that every step of our way is a continuous recognition of this: that whatever healing, regeneration, good takes place in my experience is for God’s Glory. “The heavens declare the Glory of God, the earth showeth forth HIS handiwork.” And so you can see that whatever of good comes into our experience is the Glory of God revealing ITSELF on the branch that we are.

        So then, by our continuous contemplation of this Truth, of the Source of life, of our contact with IT, of our Oneness with IT—all that the tree of life is, we become. ITS Life becomes our life, ITS Wisdom becomes our wisdom, ITS Protection becomes our protection.

        And you notice in all of this, we are not going out here and looking to anybody for anything, we are not going out here asking anybody for anything—we are not asking their cooperation, we are not asking their understanding, we are not asking their gifts. We are abiding at the center of our being, realizing that because of our Oneness with the tree of life which is God—we are the showing forth of all that God “IS.”

        Then we are in the position that the Master was in, not only able to heal others, able to feed others, able to heal the multitudes and feed the multitudes—not by virtue of himself, by virtue of his conscious recognition of his Oneness with his Source.

        So it has been in our work, this is the principle that we are proving all over the world, and we are proving it in every part of the world, showing: [that it] you don’t necessarily have to be in Hawaii to find a paradise; and you don’t have to be in the United States to find freedom. “But that wherever you are,” as God said to Moses, “go up on a mountaintop and look around, and as far as your eyes can see, this land I give to you.”

        And so it is you will find that in your Oneness with God, as far as you can see, everything that you can bear witness to is yours by the Grace of God, and without taking it from someone else. But because of its spiritual nature, it is multiplied in the life of every individual who bears witness to this Truth.

End Part 4