Infinite Way Letter

January 1956

By Joel Goldsmith

Part 3 of 7

WITHINNESS

The Ninth Commandment

Ordinarily the Commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” is understood to mean that one should not bear tales or repeat scandal and gossip about one’s neighbor, but the spiritual meaning is much more profound than that. To bear false witness against your neighbor is to accept him as a human being. Even to say that your neighbor is good and healthy is to bear false witness against him because, by so doing, you are holding him as a limited, finite human being who was born and will die, who may be good today and bad tomorrow. Obedience to the Ninth Commandment is to understand that your neighbor is immortal and eternal, possessing only the qualities of God, which are spiritual.

In God there are no opposites. That which is God is infinite and eternal: therefore, it cannot be white or black, good or bad, sick or well, beautiful or ugly. That which is God is an invisible spiritual being—and that is what you are and what I am. The I that I am is invisible; I am in and of God; I am spiritual; I am perfect. God constitutes my individual identity, and even though I may sometimes forget and permit my actions to belie that truth, nevertheless that does not change the fact that in essence and identity and being that is what I am. Anything short of that can be blamed on the humanhood which has built up a shell that prevents the real spiritual identity being made manifest. I, Joel, am invisible. That which you see is the body, and if you look only at that, you are judging unrighteous judgment. However, if you become still and quiet until you arrive at a state of spiritual realization, you see me as I am—spiritual, complete, and perfect.

When a practitioner on the spiritual path works for you, he does not work for supply, nor against lack; he does not work for goodness, nor against sinfulness. Rather, he closes his eyes to your humanhood, turns completely from it, and tabernacles with God until he attains a state of realization in which is beheld your spiritual nature, your spiritual being, your spiritual Selfhood. This is what takes place in healing.

The lessons on treatment, as presented in the various writings, are very necessary until such time as you achieve a solid foundation in the letter of truth, and a thorough understanding of what you are leading up to. There is one thing of which you must be sure: you are not leading up to a blind faith! At the beginning of your study and practice, you may find at least fifteen minutes are necessary for a treatment, but gradually the time will be shortened until, after awhile, the average treatment will not require more than two minutes, and, later, but a few seconds. The reason for this is simple: when you first begin to master the multiplication tables it takes time to figure out 12×12, but after you have studied a while the immediate answer is 144.

Just as it takes considerable time to learn the multiplication tables, so also it takes time to learn the nature of spiritual being—what God is, what the individual is, and what the relationship is, what the law of God is, and how it operates. That is why you include these in your treatments, and although it may take a few minutes longer, never hesitate to spend all the time that is necessary until you arrive at that moment of release. After the letter of truth has been consciously brought to mind, you will arrive at a place where none of that enters your thought. You will become very still and quiet and silent within, and if you think anything at all it will be the word “God”—God is life eternal; God is the only law; God is the only being. God—God—nothing but God, and in that stillness there will steal over you that divine impulse which is an intuition, an assurance, a knowing, and in that sense of release you will have attained an awareness of spiritual reality, which is your true being and mine.

You are a pure, infinite, immortal, and eternal spiritual being—invisible to this world. You will never die, but will always exist as an individual state of consciousness, ever progressing in spiritual development and unfoldment. There is no mysterious God to do this for you, so whatever takes place to benefit you is the result of your own improved state of consciousness. But once you learn this truth the out-picturing will become progressively better than it is at this moment. This higher state of consciousness is attained by constant practice. In all your relationships at home, in business, driving or shopping, it is imperative that you consciously behold the invisible spiritual identity of every person you meet. In this practice you do not see the body; you do not see male or female, rich or poor, sick or well. Instead, you see a light—a light which shines forth from each person’s eyes, and you become consciously aware of the very Child of God behind those “windows of the Soul.”

Much can be accomplished through association with your teacher or practitioner and with others on the path, and you will benefit greatly from their state of consciousness. Much progress can be made by living in the Writings and the Recordings, but you must be careful not to lean too much. The disciples benefited from association with the Master, but not enough, and most of them committed grave blunders. It was only after the Master went away that they awakened to the realization that each must find his own union with God. This is no work for a lazy man! You must develop your own state of consciousness! You must learn that God constitutes your being, and you must behold that same spiritual being behind the eyes of every individual in this world, even though they themselves may not recognize it.

When the Master said, “Arise, and take thy bed, and go thy way into thine house,” he did not see a man bound by a diseased body—he saw only the unfettered Soul, and was saying, in effect: “You, the Soul—arise! They up thy body, and walk!” It is inevitable that as you continue in this work you will be called into sick rooms and into hospitals and prisons, and always you must remember not to judge by appearances. When you have learned to see the Soul of the Child of God shining through those pain-filled eyes, you too can say: “Pick up that body, and walk out of this prison-house of beliefs!” This can happen, however, only as you and I, individually, “pray without ceasing”—but that does not mean praying to God for something. Prayer is recognition of God as the life of every individual. Prayer is the awareness ever-present good. Prayer is an acknowledgment of God in all thy ways. Prayer is understanding God as the only power operating in consciousness. It is in the understanding and application of these spiritual principles that you live in obedience to the Ninth Commandment and, thereby, bear true witness unto thy neighbor.

End Part 3