1953 First New York Closed Class

Joel S. Goldsmith

50B – A Meditation 2/4

Then we come to a state of consciousness which, in The Infinite Way, I have called the beholder. It is as if we were sitting here at peace watching the activity of the day take place. We may be up early in the morning and watch the sun rise. We may go out into the garden and watch the flowers come into bloom. We may go to the postman and watch the mail being delivered to us. We may sit down at our desk and watch our mail being answered. We may have a call for help, for prayer, and we sit down in this communion and watch God pray the patient well. Watch God’s communion dissolve the appearance and restore the harmony.

At every period of the day we are the beholder. We do not strive for supply; we behold supply as it unfolds to us from infinite sources. We never pray for supply. We never pray for health. We become still; we rest in the Soul. We let this prayer of the Soul take place while we nestle in its warmth and watch as health appears, opportunity. Always we must remember that we are not seeking to have our nets filled. Don’t be concerned about those empty nets. We don’t want filled nets. We have passed beyond that into the realm where all we want is to behold God’s spiritual universe, tabernacle with God’s sons and daughters, enjoy the multiplication of loaves and fishes—Multiplication done not by you or me or Jesus Christ – multiplication performed by the Father within me as we behold it.

We stand at the tomb of Lazarus and we say, “Father, I don’t have to pray. I know that thou knoweth. Oh yes, a lot of people standing around here who are waiting for a miracle and they expect me to do something so Father, I’m going to pray, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ But that isn’t really necessary. The Father knoweth my need. And I stand here as a beholder and wait for Lazarus to come forth.”

There’s no use my praying for opportunity tomorrow. The Father knoweth my needs. I will sit quietly in this atmosphere of Soul and watch my opportunity come to me.

The poem of Burroughs is wonderful in this connection: As the rivers flow to the sea, so my own shall come to me. I need not worry nor fret and I have no doubt for that reason that as the rivers flow to the sea. The rivers flow to the sea by some law of God, by some principle of good. It is the normal, natural thing for rivers to do – to flow to the sea, to feed the infinite oceans of our earth. And it is the normal and natural thing that God’s grace flow to us. We have dammed it up by desires, by fears, by doubts. We have even dammed it up by going to church and praying for it. Yes, we have dammed it up by accepting the belief that God was something separate and apart from our being and was not aware, we were aware but the omniscient and all-wise God was not aware of our needs.

Now we reverse all that and when we say Omniscience, when we say the all-wise God, the all-good Father we accept that at its face value and our prayer is a peace be still, a silent communion. Even that storm at sea, the Master never prayed that it be dispelled. His only prayer was Peace, be still. Was he addressing water? He was addressing his consciousness, the consciousness of the disciples, the consciousness of the crew.

Peace, be still. If your consciousness is still, there are no stormy waters within them. If your consciousness is still, everything about you takes on the complexion of that stillness. Just as this whole room is permeated with quiet, peace, joy, and love. How did it get here? Did somebody put it into the room? No, because we are in a state of peace, because we have risen above desire. We have risen above hate, fear, enmity. We have risen above the belief that there is a presence or power about us that could be destructive to us, and so our consciousness has settled down into a peace, be still. And the very air partakes of that stillness and if there were stormy waters here, they would be stilled.

Our need is only for one thing: conscious communion with God. That is the highest form of prayer. And that form of prayer can only take place after we have learned, first of all, that God is and secondly, that all that exists in this universe is God is-ing. All that exists in this universe is God is. All that exists in this universe is is – is, spiritual is. It’s neither human good nor human ill. It is neither human health nor human sickness. It is just spiritual is.

Now in that realization when we turn to the higher form of prayer which is communion we have no need of words, no need of thoughts. We sit in perfect stillness until we feel that click. We feel that contact. We feel that overpowering sense of joy, of warmth, of gratitude, of love. And in that love we take in the entire universe. In that love we take in friend and foe – without words, without declaring it, without saying it – by being love, feeling love – feeling a love that passes understanding because it isn’t a love of person. It isn’t a love of anything. It is just love.

The love that has an object isn’t love. When we say, “I love you,” or “I love it, him, or her,” that isn’t really love. That is our limited sense of love, and that kind of love comes only in degrees, because we love him more, and we love her less, and we love it still less. But when we say, “I love,” when we feel a sense of love pour out from us, it isn’t to any him or her, but it includes all the ‘hims’ and all the ‘hers’ that are within reach of our consciousness. It is an all-embracing love when it has no specific object.

That is why you cannot say that you love God. You cannot say that you love God unless you love man. Whoever says that he loves God whom he has not seen, but does not love man whom he has seen is a liar. Why? Because God and man is one. God is manifested as man. Man really is that place where God shines through. Man really is the allness of God made visible to us. There is no way to love God unless we love that which God is. And so our love is just love, and it is not a statement. Sometimes, oh, more often than not, there isn’t much love if we make the statement.

The love that is felt in a complete stillness, in a complete silence is an all-embracing love, and we never aim it at friend or foe. We never aim it or include white and black, or Jew and Gentile. No, no, no. That’s not the real love. You can’t imagine God saying, “I love you and you.” With God, it is just love. With us, it is just love in communion – a feeling of love, an all-embracing love, an all-inclusive love that leaves nothing outside of its boundaries. I in the Father, the Father in me, I in you and you in me. And that becomes a feeling, not a statement.

When sufficient time has elapsed that you have worked with is, and have come to a point where you no longer put labels, no longer believe in things to be denied, no longer have even a mental defense against them – but like David walk out without armor in the name of God, in the nature of God – when that time comes your prayers and your treatments (if we may use the word ‘treatment’) the help that you give to others, will be performed without words and without thought.

There is no need at all for a word or a thought in giving treatment after one has learned to loose him and let him go, after one has learned not to hold person, thing, condition in judgment or condemnation. In quietness, in stillness shall be your strength. In quietness, in stillness shall be your strength – not in speech. Speech is silver; silence is gold.