Infinite Way Letter
July 1955
By Joel Goldsmith
Part 3 of 6
Meditation For Beginners – continued
Our need is the realization of the nature of God and God’s government, and the contemplation of this is a form of meditation which leads to other and higher forms, and onto higher levels of consciousness. Eventually we are led to that place in consciousness where meditation is a total silence of thought, a complete state of awareness in which there is an inner alertness, an inner awakening, a state of receptivity and expectancy into which flows the realization of the Presence of God. Beyond that we need nothing. It is far better to have that realization than to have the entire world of fame and fortune at your command, because that realization is the multiplier of loaves and fishes. It makes no difference what the immediate need may be, the Presence of God is the fulfillment of that need.
At some point in this contemplation, a natural question probably will come to your mind: If it is true that God is the infinite Intelligence and the divine Love governing this universe, how do we account for the sin, disease, lack and limitation that is in the world? The answer lies in our separation, or sense of separation, from God. One of the things that has separated us from God has been our prayers. Nothing tends to separate us more than the prayers we have been taught for generations, because those prayers deny God’s infinite Wisdom and deny God’s infinite Love. When you ask God for something, you have declared that God is not the infinite Intelligence nor the divine Love, and you have separated yourself from It.
One of the Master’s greatest teachings is that it is not necessary to take thought for our lives, what we shall eat or drink or how we shall be clothed, because our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of these things. The nations of the world (meaning the materialistic, the ignorant and unknowing—the unspiritual) pray for these things, but not ye. “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you … for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
The prayer that brings God into availability is not the prayer that sets itself up to know more than God. The prayer that availeth much is the realization of the true nature of God, and that prayer brings us into attunement or at-one-ment with the Presence and the Power. The prayer of petition must separate us from our good, because it is a prayer that has no knowledge of the nature of God. You do not know God aright until you know God as infinite Wisdom and divine Love. You do not know God aright until you have the ability to cease asking.
In our ignorance we have become separated from the actual individual experience of God, and so we must ask that God reveal Itself. We must ask for wisdom, for light, for Grace, but that is all. “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Ask, again and again: “Open my eyes that I may see; open my ears that I may hear. Open my eyes of spiritual vision that I may perceive spiritually; that I may comprehend spiritually; that I may know thee as Thou art!” That form of asking is wisdom, but asking for supply, security and peace is not. Supply, security and peace are free gifts to the world now, and they are waiting for us to avail ourselves of them by bringing ourselves into harmony with God’s Law.
By the time you have contemplated God from this standpoint, and reviewed the nature of God’s work on earth and realized that there is an infinite Wisdom and a divine Love governing this universe, there will come over you such a feeling of peace that you will wonder what you ever were concerned about. However, just stating that God is infinite Wisdom and divine Love will not do much for you. It is only as a result of this contemplation that you actually agree, from your own inner experience, that it is true. There must be the actual experience of inner awareness which comes as a result of this contemplation of God.
As you persist in this contemplation, God will become a new experience, and you will find yourself developing, or with a developed state of consciousness in which you will never look to God for anything. You will be living in the realization of God continuously flowing, and you will realize that the kingdom of God, literally, is within you. It is through meditation that you make contact with this kingdom, and as a result of that higher state of consciousness immediately you begin to see the greater harmonies of mind, body, purse, family and community relationships appear in your experience. It will only be necessary to rest in peace and quiet, and let the Grace of God fill your mind and soul, being and body, and then you will smile in the realization: Thy wisdom is sufficient for me. Thy love satisfies me; I rest in Thee.
End Part 3