When the message of The Infinite Way was given to me, there was also given to me the instructions of carrying it to the world. And the first instruction I was given was, never seek a student. Share with the students who are led to you. Never seek a student. And this has been followed out to the extent that not only is there no attempt made to seek a student, but in all of these years, I have never gone any place, have never lectured or taught any place except when I was sent for. Only when an invitation came that indicated its seriousness of purpose, did I respond.
I was instructed not to advertise in the usual sense of advertising, and we never have. We have a notice in the paper calling attention to the study center, or calling attention to my class, but this is not advertising, because it is always worded in such a way that only those who already know the name Goldsmith, or Infinite Way, can possibly know what it’s about. Therefore we are not advertising for anyone to come, and we are not advertising that we have any good to offer.
So gradually, we are led to one of the great principles of mysticism, and that is this, my conscious oneness with God constitutes my oneness with all spiritual being and idea. You’ll find this exemplified in the book, I believe it is Conscious Union with God. In the moment in my meditation when I attain the realization of the presence of God, the Spirit of God, or my oneness with God, or union with God, in that moment I am set free from all the world and from all human efforts.
And the way it worked out practically was that I sat in a small office in California, did not move out of it, until three people walked in the door and asked for instruction, and continued to sit there until four couples came and asked for instruction, and continued to sit there until the next, and the next, and the next, and so forth. And have discovered, in all of these years, all that is necessary for the unfoldment of the message of The Infinite Way, or for my personal life, whatever there is of it, is done without taking conscious thought. It is done without planning.
Now again, that does not mean that when the conviction is given to me within that I am to make a trip, it does not mean that I do not write ahead and ask for hotel reservations or a classroom or lecture room or that I do not send out notices to our students that I am coming. All of those practical footsteps follow after I have been given the instruction to go. And then find that the Spirit goes before me to make the crooked places straight.
And this you will discover, whatever your business may be, whatever your art or profession may be, that your contact with the Spirit draws unto you everything necessary for the fulfillment of your work, of your home, of your business, of your finances, of anything and every nature necessary for your life. But you will also discover this: that very quickly, most of the good that is unfolding to you through the Spirit of God is being poured out for the benefit of others. You no longer have that sense of laying up treasure where moth or rust corrupt. You no longer have that sense of, “Oh, this is mine.”
Just as the Spirit reveals to you that it is the Spirit of God moving through our teachers, so you will discover that it is the Spirit of God that is providing through you, more than for you. We found a beautiful passage recently, “The vine consumeth not its own grapes.” It would be strange, wouldn’t it, if we saw vines eating up their own grapes. No, the grapes come through the vines for you and me, and thereby the vine itself is glorified. It lacks nothing by giving us its grapes. So with us. That which comes through us is for you, for this world, but we lack nothing by letting it pour.
So you will discover—to me it is one of the greatest secrets I have ever learned and one of the most valuable—that God has never given me anything. Never. Everything that has come to me through the grace of God has not been labeled for me, but through me. In this way, you can behold the universal nature of God. Unless you can come to see that God is a God of all people, all races, all religions, and none—it includes the agnostics and the atheists; they have the same God we have; they’re not aware of it. But they have the same God, and they receive their life from the same God, even though they may not acknowledge it, they’re breathing by the grace of God, and even stand on their feet by the grace of God. If you ever try it, muscles cannot keep you on your feet. If consciousness is absent, you won’t stand up. If consciousness is absent, you won’t breathe.
And so it is, that even if we deny the presence of God, still we have the same God. Then, how impossible it would be for God to give me something. Well, as a matter of fact, I doubt that you could love that God that would give me, while you are all sitting here. Wouldn’t that shock you? And wouldn’t you like to desert that God? And rightly so, for it is no God that gives me. There is a God that has given to all: his own breath, his own life, his own Spirit, his own mind, his own consciousness, his own soul, and his own body. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the living God? God gave you this temple. This is another very practical revelation of mysticism. The non-mystic may, and most often does, desecrate his own body, misuse it, and abuse it. The mystic never does. The mystic knows that the body is the temple of God, has been given him by the grace of God, and he knows that his body is sacred.
And he knows that your body is sacred, and the mystic will never desecrate your body. The mystic will never dishonor your body. The mystic alone knows the sacredness of individual identity, individual being, individual sanctity, and even the sanctity of your body and of your purse. The mystic could never be a thief. The mystic could never cheat, defraud, because the mystic, in the realization of the spiritual nature of individual being, holds you sacredly—You, your being, your body, your purse.
You see, prayers for peace on earth are a waste of time. They are time consuming and they are purely a waste, because there can be no peace on earth until there is the understanding of the sanctity of the individual being. And then you will no more want to desecrate the citizens of another nation than you would your own. Nor would you be a party to it. And therefore, as we all come into that realization, peace comes.
You see, there is peace in this room, and there is peace among us and between us. And those who have any understanding of this message, and there are many here who have been with us many years who know, there is a permanent state of peace such as you feel here now. Why? Because of our recognition that I and my Father are one. All that the Father hath is mine, and therefore you are free with yours. I realize the sanctity of my being because of my relationship to God. I realize the sanctity of your being, and so each one of us comes to that realization. And since we want nothing of each other except to share what we have, there is peace.
Wars come about for two major reasons: religion and money. These have been the foundations of every war that has ever been fought, religion or money. Well you see, we could not war on religious grounds, because we have accepted the fact that regardless of what your religion may be or may not be, you have the same God or Father as I have, and so I have no quarrel with you on religious grounds.
Whether you worship with your shoes on, as we do in the Occident, or with your shoes off, as they do in the Orient; whether you worship with your hats on, as they do in some churches, or your hats off, as they do in other churches, what difference would that make to us? And if you worship in no church, what difference would that make to us? I know thee, who thou art, the Son of the living God, and the form of your worship matters not. So we could not war on religious grounds.
We could never war on financial grounds, because we have no obligation to each other. You owe me nothing and I owe you nothing, and whatever of a financial nature takes place between us is a voluntary matter. There is no demand; there is no obligation. Therefore we could not war on that scale. And as you ponder this, you will see that this is the solution to national and international wars. When we attain peace in consciousness, we will have peace in the world.