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

Many come to us because of recommendations, and many of those really have not been spiritually attracted to us, just humanly. And, therefore, many of these must be expected to go on to other fields. Once you have the realization of your oneness with your Source, so that you are fed, clothed, housed, provided for spiritually, you have no excuse in the world to hang onto a patient or to a student. And, of course, in the degree of your spiritual Light, you would never want to hold anyone for one single second beyond that moment in which you could bless them.

 

In the same way, then, you know when your students or patients are ready for the monthly Letter. But, you must also be prepared to show them how to read it, or how to study it, or how to live it. You cannot expect a beginner to take anything as serious as a monthly Letter and really know how to make it a part of their daily lives. Therefore, you yourself must have developed an ability to use that Letter in some way that brings added fruitage into your life. Only then can you impart, because this really is probably the basic secret of all teaching that no one can teach that except that which they know. No one can impart that which they have. No one can impart spiritually, except that which they are; and if you haven’t embodied the monthly Letter, if you haven’t embodied a mode and means of using it, you can’t impart it.

And so it is that a grave responsibility rests upon those who would accept a practice, because eventually it makes you responsible for the spiritual unfoldment of those who place themselves in your hands; and this is a very grave responsibility. I would remind you that a person can rob, cheat, lie, defraud, and murder, and not be guilty of as great a sin as a person who cheats spiritually, who claims to wear the robe and doesn’t, who claims to be able to impart spiritual life, and spiritual health, and spiritual reality to a student, and who hasn’t the capacity. This is the mortal sin. This is spiritual wickedness in high places. And better it were the Bible tells us that we hadn’t been born at all than that we should undertake a spiritual life unprepared for or that we should attempt to be responsible for the spiritual welfare of another soul, if we are not prepared to accept the responsibility of doing it correctly.

And so it is that it is far better for us that our list of practitioners be limited, as it is now, to a dozen or so than that it should contain the name of thousand of those who would not and could not give the real bread, meat, and wine of this message. Remember, you are dealing only with the bread, meat, water, wine of this message. And so it isn’t enough that you think of yourself as a metaphysician or a truth student. When you undertake the practice of The Infinite Way, you undertake to impart the bread, the meat, the wine, and the water in accord with this message. I’m sure you have witnessed the tragedy of the Christian ministers who are still handing out Judaism instead of Christianity to their people. You have certainly witnessed what state the world is in, because the Christian church is still a Hebrew synagogue with a cross on it, instead of imparting the message of the Christ.

And so our students who undertake to impart the message of The Infinite Way must be sure that they are imparting the message of The Infinite Way and not whatever it is that they may have studied before. If this is to be your work, let this be your work. If you cannot make this your work, then recognize it and change to some other work. Find your destiny. There is nothing as glorious in all life as to come to the place when you have found your destiny, where you have met your soul mate, whether it is your spiritual teaching, or your wife, or your husband. There is no such thing as a greater wisdom, a greater love, a greater life than to have realized, to realize that you have found your destiny, your way in life, your path, your Christ, your goal, and then remain with it. It is for this reason that we will always remain unorganized, so that nobody has to feel loyal to us forever, so that no one has to have a guilt complex or a disloyal feeling; that at any time, when they find that this is not their message, they have the freedom to depart from it.

There is no one, at the present time, connected with this activity who needs to be connected with it for financial reasons. There is no one of us who needs the money or who needs to earn the money in this way. And God willing, it will always remain so that we will be in this work because of its calling, and whatever of an economic nature unfolds will be the fruitage of it, not a necessity. As a matter of fact, we’ll never succeed in this work until we have demonstrated that our bread, meat, wine, and water is the presence of God within, that our support does come from within. I have told you, or I have told some of the classes of an awakening experience that I had in my earliest years in Hawaii when a group of students came to me and said that it would be a wonderful thing for me to have a beautiful home with grounds around it in a quiet, secluded place where students could come from any part of the world that they wished and partake of the spiritual nature of our work in quietness and in peace. And my answer was, “When the students want such a thing, they may provide it, and I will promise to be there.” But that night, I was awakened out of a sleep with the Voice saying to me, “You have taught them incorrectly.” And, you can imagine that I jumped up, and then It revealed to me how erroneously I had taught them that day.

And the next day, I called that same group together, and I told them that I had made this mistake; that when such a place was necessary, I would provide it. That it was the function of the spiritual teacher to prove that God provides all needs. It wasn’t for the student to provide the teacher, as if the student had greater capacity than the teacher did. No, to be a teacher you must reveal that the teacher has the capacity to provide all things through Grace. And if the teacher hasn’t reached that estate, they aren’t yet a teacher.

And so it is that we have such a place today. Some of you have seen it, and it is beautiful, and it is secluded, and it is quiet, and it has a beautiful home, and it has beautiful grounds, and the grace of God provided it. Nobody in our movement was ever, ever asked. As a matter of fact, it was provided for before the students even knew that it existed. And that is spiritual demonstration. And so it must be that in every case, our students have no right to demand, our teachers, practitioners have no right to demand of the students what the teacher themselves must fulfill. And above all, if a teacher is going to teach the nature of supply, they must first of all have demonstrated their supply.