God Realization Is Pure Demonstration
1956 Second Steinway Hall Practitioner Class 
Tape 147B
by Joel S. Goldsmith

147B God-Realization-is-Pure-Demonstration

Good morning. And welcome to another class; start of some more work.

Wonderful things can be expected of a class such as this, because more than three quarters of you have been with the Infinite Way a long time, have been through many classes, have been able to prove in your own experience the efficacy of the work, have been able to bear witness to some of its fruitage. Most of you have come from long distances, and have spent a great deal of money, as well as time, effort, to be here. When the Master said that we are to leave all for Christ, many have imagined that they ought to pack up and move and desert their husbands or wives or children, move out to a desert and be quite alone. And he probably meant no such thing, but more like what we are witnessing here; more the ability to leave the habits, the inertia that keeps us in one place, that prevents us making the effort to move to another place, or provide ourselves with the necessary funds and leisure, the ability to make sacrifices of some immediate thing for a spiritual gain. And most of you have done that, have made many sacrifices to be here, not only this week, last week, the week before, and in other years. Now, let this be understood very clearly, that in speaking of this, I’m speaking not merely of the Infinite Way. I’m speaking actually of any teaching that takes us closer to the realization of God. Anyone who will make a sacrifice of themselves, of their time, of their money, in order to reach a higher realization of God, will find abundant fruitage from it.


Our work this week should bring us a greater realization of harmony than any other week in our experience. First of all, because all of the other weeks in our experience, and all of the other years in our experience, have been preparations for this week. Just as the work we do this week will be preparation for next year, or five years from now. Progress in spiritual living is not attained through study. Study is one of the steps, one of the necessary steps, but one of the least important steps. Study is only a preparation for meditation and communion. Study is only a help toward lifting one’s self into an atmosphere of the spirit, where meditation and communion can be realized, or achieved. It is in mediation and it is in communion that the spiritual powers are developed, the spiritual faculties are developed. And, as some of you now know, and some of you now believe when I repeat it over and over again, this can not be achieved in any week’s class or year’s study. This is a matter of time, development, cultivation, patience, perseverance. If it were possible to study any book ever written and become spiritual, or achieve spiritual harmony, success, health, wholeness, that book would be the Gospel of John. No other book ever put into print compares in any way with the depth of vision, with the absolute mystical truth of the Gospel of John. If there is another book, I haven’t seen it. I have seen many that reveal the same or a similar truth, and I know of several that bring the true mystical message to our consciousness. But none quite so perfect. None quite so complete as the Gospel of John. And yet, there must be a thousand million copies of the Gospel of John in circulation in the world, in all languages, and the world is still at war with itself and with each other. Disease is still rampant. Sin still clutters up the entire world. And so, if that book hasn’t accomplished the spiritualization of mankind, no other book can hope to achieve it.

And so, put not your hope in books, or teachings, or teachers. Because you’ll be disappointed. But these books, whether the Gospel of John, or other mystical writings including the Infinite Way writings, can serve as helps and aids. But, the actual success, the actual spiritualization of thought and being, is accomplished within you. And it is accomplished through years of meditation, communion, inner realization. Now, a class can carry you in one week the equivalent of what you could do by yourself in a year.

There is a reason for that. I spoke of it in the lectures. The greatest aid to spiritual development, is to be in the consciousness, in the very presence of the spiritually enlightened. And so, to be present with a teacher and to be present with those students who have for years been devoting themselves to the spiritualization of their consciousness, is enough to lift up the whole rest of the room, much further than they could do it themselves with years of study. Just remember that in this room there are students who have been studying this very teaching for ten years, nine years, eight, seven, six, five; students who have traveled to all parts of the country and even to foreign countries for more study, deeper study, further study; students here who have gone to great, great lengths to arrange their household affairs, their home affairs, their business affairs, so that they could travel, so that they could have the funds available, so that they could give time, and peace, and patience to but one thing; spiritualization of consciousness, of thought, of being, of body. Do you not see how being in their presence must be of benefit to you. To some extent, they have already left mother and father, sister and brother, for the sake of the world. Everyone who comes to this work, sooner or later learns this; that you can not come to it for any benefit for yourself. You can in the beginning, of course. We all do. But you can’t be on this path very long, until you find that your own benefits are the least of all. The real benefits are those that the world receives through your study, through your illumination, through your state of consciousness. To some extent you benefit, because your health benefits, your supply benefits, your human relationships benefit, but oh how quickly you learn how little importance you attach to the benefits that you receive. And how many times you set aside those benefits, so that others may achieve through your new, higher developed state of consciousness. That is what happens in these classes, now that these classes are made up principally of students who have been through previous classes; students who have given themselves, and are giving themselves, that others may benefit through their work, through their devotion, through their study, and through their prayer. And so it is that I say to you that miracles will take place, must take place inevitably, through our work here this week.