So the only time, on the face of the globe, where this truth has been adequately revealed and taught has been when it has come through the consciousness of one who has attained some measure of it. Those who grasped it were able to hold it, but by far the majority went through a course, and got a degree and went out and started teaching.

Now then, let us for a moment go through one of our exercises—I say one of our exercises, I guess it’s the only exercise we have in The Infinite Way, that may help us to establish our true identity so that we understand it. Then be very certain that you do not tell it to anyone until it has become so real within your own being that you can never lose it. Don’t start telling it while it is merely an intellectual acceptance in your mind. Wait until you are demonstrating it in some degree.

Now, let us look right down at our feet, and let us ask ourselves the question, “Is this me? Are these feet me or are they mine? Am I down there, or do I possess those feet?” Let us travel right up to the knee. Am I anywhere in there, or are those legs mine? Are they mine or are they me? If they are hurt, am I hurt, or are my legs hurt? Is there not a me, an identity, which is not legs? Let us go up to the waist and see if we can find ourselves and see if all that we behold is not mine. Am I there, or is that body mine? Is there not still a me, separate and apart from that body? Is there not an I which possesses that body? Is that body not an instrument for my living, for my walking?

Let us go right up to the chest and the neck and the head, and see if we find ourselves in there, see if all this wasn’t given to us for our use, for our locomotion, for our movement, for our activity. See if all this isn’t as much ours as our automobile; and all the way right up to the top of the hair on top of the head, and see if you find yourself encased in there, see if you find yourself embodied in any spot in there. See if all of this isn’t yours. Isn’t this your head, your ears, your eyes, your mouth, your tongue, your throat? Could any of that be me, or is all that mine?

Then review, from the toes right up to the hair, and again ask yourself, “Am I there? Am I encased in there? Has a surgeon ever operated and found anyone in there? Is there anyone inside there to escape from there? Am I in there, that I could someday go some other place? Can I leave this body? First, am I in this body, or am I this body, or is this body mine? Is it not the temple, the instrument, given to me for my use?

Look at my hands. Can they, of themselves, give or withhold, or must I give or withhold, just using the hands as an instrument in either case? Can my hands be benevolent? Can my hands be stingy, miserly? Have my hands the power to give or the power to withhold, or is all that power in me? Are not my hands the instruments for my giving or my withholding?

Does the heart give me permission to live, or does my life function the heart? If my hands cannot give and cannot withhold, how then could my heart give life or withhold life? If my hands are not self-acting, how can my heart be self-acting, or liver or lungs or kidneys? Is there not something called I, which functions through this body? Is there not something called I that walks the street through these legs or with these legs or by means of these legs? Is there not something called I that gives through these hands, or perhaps sometimes withholds through these hands? Is there not an I which functions through the instrumentality of this body? Where is this I? What is this I? Who am I? What am I? Now that I have seen this body in its true light, can I ever again look in a mirror and say, “I look well,” or “I look poorly?” Or must I forever remember that we are now speaking of my body? The body is not you. The I that you are now realizing is you.

I am I. I am not body. Body is not me. I am. Even if you cut off these legs, I still am; cut off these arms, I still am. I am. I am being. My being is not dependent on body. My body is dependent on my being. The fact that I am being. The fact that I am gives expression to my body. And the I that I am determines whether my hands shall give or withhold; whether my legs shall walk, or be still. The I that I am functions my body. My body has no will of its own, no intelligence of its own, no action of its own. My body responds to me. My body responds to the I that I am. My body is governed by me. I say to my body, “Go thence,” and it goes. I say to my body, “Remain,” and it remains. I say to my body, “Sit,” and it sits. I am a law unto my body. I am the life of my body. I am the soul and I am the substance of my body. The I that I am is me. The I that I am is the only me there is. What am I? Who am I? Where am I? Why am I? These questions—each one—must determine through meditation, introspection, cogitation, pondering the great truths of life: Who am I? Where am I? Why am I? What is my purpose in life? Now that I know that I am I, the body isn’t I, the body isn’t me; I am I, I have at least an inkling of the great truth, that I am eternal and that I even survive the body. The body cannot destroy me, but rightly understood, I can preserve the body; and even if some human belief were to destroy this body, I could raise it up again in three days because I am the governing agency of this body. I am the life of this body. I am the substance and I am the creator of this body. The body is not a law unto me. I am a law—I am the law unto my body. I am the activity of my body. It moves according to my decree.  

Now do you see that part of the discords of human experience have come from the belief that the body is me or that I am the body or that I am in the body whereas I am infinite identity, eternal identity, immortal identity? As you close your eyes in meditation and just realize the word, I, I, I. I really am. I am. I am being. I am being. Very, very soon you will begin to perceive the nature of the I that I am, and then you will see why Moses was shocked out of his skin when he realized “I am that I Am.” Ah, everyone knew, in those days, that is the great scholars knew, that I Am is God. Now Moses receives the great revelation but I am that I Am. Yes, there is only one I, one eternal, immortal I, one eternal, immortal Ego. Whether that I appears as you or as me, as he or as she, it is that same I.

Now then, the very moment that you realize that I am being, I am life eternal; I am really the law of being; the life of being, the soul of being, you begin to lose your fear of dying, of death; and the moment you begin to lose your fear of dying or of death, you begin to lose all of the ills of the flesh because all of the ills of the flesh are based on that original fear, on that major fear.

I am being; and therefore, I am eternal being. I am forever being. Nothing can ever stop the being that I am, because I exist independently of what the world calls matter, confinement, embodiment. I am. I am not subject, then, to death, disease, sin, fear because I am the Law of being, the Life of being. Because the nature of my being is eternality, nothing from without can enter to destroy.