1964 Seattle/Chicago Series 

Joel S. Goldsmith

554B – Practicality of Mysticism

 

Good Evening.

First of all, may I call your attention to the fact that in this room there is no evil influence and there is no good influence.  This is just a blank, vacant room—floor, ceiling, walls, air, light, and nothing else.  Neither good nor evil occupies this room.  And therefore, whether you or I experience good or evil in this room will depend on what we bring in with us. What we bring in with us will be made manifest in this room and in the experience of each other. In other words, if I bring to this room a spirit of love, sharing, a spirit of peace, or if before entering this room I have meditated and opened my consciousness to the Spirit of God, then I bring the Spirit of God to this room and to all who are in this room.  I bring the Spirit of the Christ; I bring Christ peace, I bring the wine, the water the bread, the spiritual substance of the Son of God to you, if, remember it is all if,  if before I enter this room I opened my soul to receiving the grace of God, then I have brought to this room and to you the grace of God, the Spirit of God, the love of God, and this is now flowing through me to you; not from me. It is from God to you, but I am the transparency which said, “Enter Lord,” or “Speak Lord.”  And therefore I am the transparency through which God’s grace now flows to you. And there is no reason why you should not leave this room with a higher sense of spiritual good, with a lighter feeling, with a greater awareness of a divine presence—even with healing because the Spirit of God does heal.

You who enter this room bring with you whatever it is that you brought with you.  Those of you who have been taught in this work, I know what you brought with you, because I know that you would not enter any room or business, temple, church, street car, bus, automobile without first having opened your consciousness to the Spirit of God.  Therefore, wherever you are, the Spirit of God is with you and you are the transparency through which It is flowing.   Those of you who have not been taught in this way may have brought your troubles here, your worries, or your fears, or your hates, or jealousies, or animosities. And if so, you have not brought light and peace unto us, which you might have done.  But of this you can be assured that we who have been so instructed are bringing light and peace to you, so that as you leave here, that you may have less fear, worry, concern, anxiety, hate, envy, jealousy, malice because you are being touched by the Spirit of God that is flowing in this room through each and everyone of us who have been taught in this way. In other words, you have entered a holy presence—the presence of God—The presence of God in the consciousness of each one who has opened themselves to that presence.

If you undertake a study of this work, a practice of this work, you will discover that you also will very soon find that you are treated differently by members of your family, your business, your friends, because it will not take long for them to notice that you are bringing something into their presence that wasn’t there before, and that you did not have with you before.

So let me show you a major principle of our work, and one which you may test.  And that is this: Your consciousness is, in and of itself, an instrument.  And, your activity of consciousness determines the outer experience of your life.  Of course in the human picture we were taught that circumstances, environment, education, or lack of education, all played a part in our success or failure in life; our happiness or unhappiness in life.  And I give it to you with thirty-five years of practical experience that this is a lie.  This is a lie! You make your own life once you know the truth. And you make it or you break it by the degree of truth that you know, or your ignorance of truth.  If you allow your mind or consciousness to be played upon by outside influences, by world beliefs, then of course you are whipped around in that manner.  But once you understand that your life is determined by whether or not you entertain truth in your consciousness, then your life begins to change.

In this way then: When I learned that my life’s experience was determined by me, and not by anybody external to me and not by any circumstances or conditions, I learned that if I kept my consciousness filled with the Spirit of God, that those that I met out here recognized it.  And in some measure their attitude towards me changed.  In other words, I was less apt to be judged by human standards.  It was more than likely that that Spirit of God which was flowing through me would in some measure reveal Itself to those whom I met.  Then I learned the second part of that principle. And that is this: That if I thought of you as male or female, or young or old, or good or bad, or rich or poor, or young or old, that’s just about what you gave back to me.  But, in the moment when I stopped judging by appearances and recognized the fact that God breathed His life into you as well as into me, that the Spirit of God dwelt in you as well as me, then when we met, even as strangers, instead of seeing you as you humanly appear to be, I began to see that look in your eye, that soul shining through, that which humans can’t see because they are so busy looking at whether you are beautiful or not beautiful, or whether you are well dressed or not well dressed, or whether you look honest or do not look honest, that they can’t quite see your soul shining through your eyes.

Now, life changes completely the minute I recognize that whether or not I am humanly anything special or ordinary, but when I recognize that in spite of whatever I may humanly be, there is the Spirit of God in me.  There is an indwelling spirit. My shoulders immediately go back and I have a higher regard for myself. I have a higher regard for me as an individual. I’m not concerned about what my parents were, or my grandparents, or where they came from, or what their condition of life may have been. I’m concerned only with one thing: the Spirit of God dwelleth in me.  Somewhere, somehow, His spirit is with me—from the beginning, before Abraham was, and will be unto the end of the world. If I am not yet manifesting it in my outer life, at least I know that potentially I am the Son of God; I am heir to the qualities of God.  I do have an inner integrity; I may not yet be displaying it fully outwardly, but at least I know that I do have an inner integrity, and so for me that which is the foundation of Christianity, and originally was the foundation of what we might call Americanism, has come to life—that is the integrity of the individual, the freedom of the individual, the equality of the individual, that comes to life in me.

But, it never completes itself until I then look out here and begin to realize the full integrity of manhood is yours; the full integrity of womanhood.  I don’t care what your present offenses may be due to ignorance of your identity.  I don’t care what your present state of life maybe.  I can look through your eyes, because I know now that looking out from there is that which calls forth the original revelation of Christianity, the integrity of individual being.  The divinity of individual being.  And I can understand what is meant by, “All men were created equal.” All men didn’t stay equal. That’s right.  And the reason they didn’t stay equal was because they didn’t know that their equality came from God and not from man.  And they lapsed into the belief that that equality could be taken from them, and so they permitted it.

Now, in any given moment—any given moment, this moment, that I recognize the integrity of my individual being because of my divine son-ship, not because of my human goodness—”Why callest thou me good,” no, no, no, not because of my human goodness, I may still fall far short of that, but because of my divine son-ship, I am equal; I am heir of God, joint heir with Christ to all of the heavenly riches.  I am son of the one God, therefore brother and sister to every individual who has ever appeared anywhere on the face of the globe.  And then I can look out and see that in your eyes and acknowledge your integrity, your individuality—recognize the divine son-ship of your infinite, spiritual being. And I can tell you from experience—my experience and that of thousands of students that life changes at once, within an hour.  We see each other differently, and we are seen differently by those who meet us. It is for this reason that it is so much to be regretted that the word mysticism is so misunderstood.  To hear people speak you would almost imagine that mysticism is something far fetched, something strange, something unreal, and of course very unpractical.