Original Iwihub.com transcript, proofread by Zane Maser

1960 New York “25” Practitioner Class
1960 New York Private Class for “25”
Joel S. Goldsmith
Tape 362A

  362A 1960 New York _25_ Practitioner Class

Without this letter of truth, in my experience, it has not been possible to awaken the spiritual capacities of students to the full degree. I have seen it that some students have come to me and with the very first meditation have been spiritually awakened, have had their soul faculties opened. But, it has only benefited those who have remained with me long enough to learn the correct letter of truth, so that they can hold fast to the spiritual light, which they gained. You’ll notice a good deal of this in Dr. Bucke’s “Cosmic Consciousness,” where he shows how many, many people had a spiritual experience, but it did nothing for them. It was just an experience. It happened once and that ended its effect upon their lives. And, of course, the reason is that they had no knowledge to go along with that experience through which they might hold onto that which they had received.

Therefore, there is a responsibility upon those of you who practice, and that responsibility is to first of all be sure that you are practicing with patients who have an interest in learning spiritual truth and not just being practitioners for anybody and everybody who wants a healthy body. There are plenty of doctors to give it to them, and it is not your function to take on the healing of all of the people of the world who want healing, at least not while you’re working from the standpoint of The Infinite Way. You’re major function is to work with those who are seeking the kingdom of God, who are seeking spiritual truth, who are seeking spiritual realization. Work with them and let your healing of them be the evidence of the truth of what you’re teaching.

Now, in giving them the principles of The Infinite Way, you have, of course, the writings and the recordings, and the writings are essential for study. But, the writings can only perform their full function if you know how to use them and if you know how to instruct with them. For instance, when you have a question of human relationships come to your work, it might be marital. It might be business office, might be legal, or any form of human relationship. You should instantly be able to refer your patient, not only refer your patient first of all, you should be able to refer yourself to the two chapters, which contain the essence of that work—“Love Thy Neighbor” in Practicing the Presence and “Relationship in Oneness” in The Art of Spiritual Healing. When you use those two chapters as guides for yourself, you will find that you can easily settle down into a meditation and bring through the realization of Christ. When, of course, you can have the cooperation of your patient or student so that they, too, are willing to stop their mental human judgments of people and conditions and are willing to align themselves to the spiritual truth, you have that much greater opportunity for success.

When people come to you with beginning interest in this work, and with no particular metaphysical background, be sure that you offer them, “The Deep Silence of My Peace,” that tiny, little thing, which has brought so much comfort and help to so many; and you can imagine how many when I tell you that it has had publication of eighty thousand copies. And “The Secret of the 23rd Psalm,” and that has already had forty thousand copies; and this is quite a testimony to the contents of it, because those sales evolved out of the books themselves. There is no pressure used anywhere to sell them. But, they are outstanding in that particular thing. In the same way that when we come to the advanced student, we shouldn’t hesitate to give them, “The Fourth Dimension,” because in spite of its price of ten cents, it is undoubtedly the deepest of all The Infinite Way writings; and that and Leave Your Nets beyond all doubt our two deepest writings. Leave Your Nets will not be available again for more than a year. We can’t get at the rewriting of it.

Now, in this same way, your young student, according to our method of work, must be brought to the ability to meditate. Now, through actual practice, I have found that meditation becomes easier if the student has first worked with the book, Practicing the Presence. In other words, for a Westerner to go cold into the subject of meditation rarely succeeds, whereas if they really begin to practice—practicing the Presence—if they really begin to practice the daily realization of the presence of God as it is outlined in that book, then by the time they sit down to meditation, they can feel an inner peace, an inner quietness that will enable them to more quickly get into meditation.

In this same way, reserve “The Infinite Way Wisdoms” for students who are far, far, far along on the path, because they are purely mystical in nature and will have no appeal, except for those who are mystically inclined. You yourself, in your studies, have found passages in the writings, which have helped you in certain experiences; and naturally you have to have these available to you to pass on to your student, just as I have found in scripture the passages that make up the message of The Infinite Way. Now, of course, you know from your study that I perhaps haven’t touched one percent of the Bible; and frankly I’m not interested in the other ninety nine percent. And, the reason is that every passage of scripture that is used in The Infinite Way writings I have experienced; I have had realizations of; I have had healings through. Every one of those passages to me is absolutely alive. Every one of these is the bread of Life, and in these thirty years they have proven to be the means through which healing consciousness have been realized. But, you are not limited to those. There is still a whole Bible. And, it may be that you will find your help in other passages of the Bible, and that, of course, depends on the degree in which you read or study scripture.

Again, there are certain truths that have revealed themselves to me in my treatment work to which I return over and over again because of the demonstrated truth of them in my experience. Now, of course, you wouldn’t be here in this room this morning if there weren’t passages of Infinite Way writings that have come to mean a great deal to you, or that have brought healing to you, or comfort, or what; and, therefore, these must always be at your mental fingertips so that you, too, can pass them on to those you are helping. Or, in going through the writings, you have found paragraphs or chapters, and so it is your function to work with your student through those. In other words, the degree of enlightenment you bring to your student depends upon the degree of enlightenment that you have received from these writings.

Naturally, if you have received your enlightenment from other writings, don’t try to give enlightenment to your students from these. If The Infinite Way writings have brought you whatever measure enlightenment you have attained, then those are the writings that you are to use in bringing enlightenment to others. That is why, too, it may not be possible for us to bring enlightenment to everyone who comes to us, and, therefore, we must be perfectly free and perfectly willing for them to go on to some other teacher or some other teaching. We must not attempt under any circumstance to bring the world into The Infinite Way but merely let that part of the world drift in that is drawn to it by a oneness with our unfoldment.