1960 Seattle Closed Class
Joel S. Goldsmith
309B – Coming Into the Awareness of Spirit  1/5

 

And I will say good evening to you, and tell you that for the balance of this week we are going to have a great deal of work on the specific principles which constitute the healing message of The Infinite Way.

Now, I want to bring this to your attention: God cannot be reached through the mind nor can healing work be done with the mind. So that it really would make no difference if you knew all of the truth in any of the metaphysical textbooks: Science and Health or Lessons in Truth or Infinite Way. It really would make no difference if you knew them all by heart; you still couldn’t heal with them, because healing is not done by knowledge; it is not done by formulas; it is not done by statements of truth.

And so the principles of healing which constitute this message have been embodied in all of our writings, all of our Infinite Way writings. So that while you were learning the principles, you were at the same time developing the necessary spiritual consciousness which would make those principles operate. In other words, without a measure of attained spiritual consciousness, no matter how much you know about the letter of truth it will do nothing for you. Now … or rather very little.

And so as you study in this next six months, what I’m going to give you the balance of this week, you may think to yourself, “Why didn’t he tell us this before? Why didn’t he make it as simple as this before?” And then you’ll go back into the books and find that every word is there. But you didn’t find it there because it isn’t taken out and put on just a few pages and summarized for you, as it will be now. But be assured of this, I wouldn’t even do this now if I hadn’t been instructed to. And if I didn’t know that the reason it will be important to you is that you have had the background of the study of the message and the development of spiritual consciousness.

Now I will also say this, that all of you who have studied either Christian Science or Unity or Divine Science or one of the recognized authentic New Thought teachings have also developed sufficiently your spiritual consciousness so that you can take these principles and work with them understandingly.

In other words, it has already been demonstrated to us this year that the prophecy has or is in process of becoming true, that the principles of The Infinite Way are being universally adopted. In other words, they are now on sale in all of the metaphysical movements, they are on sale in some of the churches, and each month they are finding wider circulation.

And the reason is that all students of truth, regardless of what their approach has been, have been developing their consciousness in their studies and now that they see these principles they recognize them; they can understand them and apply them. And the fruitage that we are getting is really wonderful from students of the different teachings who are coming for the first time to The Infinite Way, and finding these principles.

Now, let me read just a bit from Living the Infinite Way. And in this book you will find a great deal of this entire development of spiritual consciousness. “One of the greatest spiritual teachers who ever walked this earth, has told us that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The word becomes the living waters; it is our protection, our safety, our security as we go about our tasks and duties. Even though we may go through deep waters and be tried in the fire of experience, the waters will not overflow us and the flames will not kindle upon us if the word of God is in us and with us.”

“We must understand that the message of The Infinite Way is not to give the world a new teaching, but to give the world an experience. The Infinite Way is actually a God-experience, a Christ-experience. The Infinite Way is not in its writings, lectures, or classes; these are but instruments leading us to The Infinite Way. And The Infinite Way itself is the God-experience.” And you see that this whole book is dedicated to that.

Well now, tonight, I was reading the introduction to a new book of The Dead Sea Scriptures that has come to me. And in it I find this tremendous thing, and you will find this all through The Infinite Way writings: “But even if the law or truth be correctly expounded by prophet and teacher, men, it was held, can and will receive it only if they be correctly attuned. And that attunement comes through inner enlightenment.”

“It was this state that the members of the community claimed for themselves. This was the ultimate goal of their entire spiritual adventure, the aim and reason of the law, and of the disciplined life which it enjoined. They held that by virtue of their enlightenment, they were members not only of the consecrated earthly brotherhood but also of the eternal communion. This is not as all too many scholars have supposed a mere belief in bodily resurrection, or a mere hope for the survival of the soul in some cloud land of bliss. Rather is it the sound mystic sense that, given the right spiritual posture, given the victory over that darkness which is set before him, along with the light, man may live even on earth in a dimension of eternity.”

And there’s the whole of The Infinite Way really, that the intellectual knowledge of truth, noble as it may be, is not of benefit to us in the development of our spiritual life, or the development of our eternality and immortality, nor is it of a benefit in bringing health to this physical frame. But only in proportion as we are spiritually attuned to the center of our being which is God, only as we are in at-one-ment with the source of life are we fed by the waters of life, by the bread of life which is every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Without spiritual discernment, none of this is possible!