The Infinite Way
| Chapter - Wisdoms of the Infinite Way
There is never a conflict with person or condition, but rather a false concept mentally entertained about person, thing, circumstance, or condition. Therefore, make the correction within yourself, rather than attempting to change anyone or anything in the without. Acknowledge God as the substance, law, cause, and activity of all that is, and immediately refrain from meddling physically or mentally in the without. Get back inside yourself, and there resolve all appearances. When living out from the center of Being, you are untouched by the thoughts, opinions, laws, and theories of the world. Nothing acts upon you because you do not react to the world of appearances. In the spiritual life, you place no labels on the world. You do not judge as to good, evil, sick or well, rich or poor. While appearances may show forth harmony or discord, by not judging, you merely know IS, and let that which truly IS define Itself. To live spiritually is to know that all is; then do not name, label, define, or judge what is. Be content to know IS and let what IS reveal Its being, nature, and character to you. Prayer is the inner vision of harmony. This vision is attained by giving up the desire to change or improve anyone or anything. Never seek anything or any condition in prayer. Let harmony define and reveal itself. Let your prayer be letting the IS appear. Prayer is an awareness of that which IS by "seeing" it -- not making it so. To pray is to become aware of the harmony without a mental effort on your part. Prayer is the absence of desire in the recognition of IS. Spiritual wisdom reveals the deep, clear, cool well of contentment within you through your recognition of IS. Be sure that your prayer is not an attempt to influence God. Be sure that your prayer is not a desire to improve God's universe. Be at peace: God IS. Rest in the deep, clear well of contentment within you. Peace already IS. Have no desires in the world. Let God's grace suffice. There are no powers of evil external to yourself. Discords have no external existence. Resolve them within your own consciousness. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" There is an insight in man that visions through all appearances. Be at peace. Daniel's vision revealed the four temporal kingdoms destroyed by a stone "cut out of the mountain without hands." As you "see" this stone being cut out of the mountain "without hands," you will observe that this stone is the Word. Consciousness, awareness of IS, is the stone which overcomes, without might or power, but by the grace of IS. Be at peace. IS alone overcomes the world. The cool, clear water of the well of contentment within refreshes you with the assurance that joy already IS. "Peace, be still." Take your discords into the well of contentment; wash them, and behold -- the grace of God! "My peace I give unto you." Be not dismayed: "It is I." There are no limitations external to your self. Be free. Be content with that which is. Abide in the deep well of contentment. I AM. It Is. If you could discover some form of prayer, meditation, or thought that heals, enriches, or blesses, you would have an effect become God. Impossible! Only God is God! If you could find something or some thought to which to cling -- even then an effect would be God. Impossible! It is impossible to realize God as long as one has in mind a "purpose" or "object" other than realizing God. It is impossible to achieve anything through God as long as one has a desire to achieve it. God is a jealous God. Do not seek in the realm of thought or thing for God. Anything that can be known is effect -- never God. Cease trying. Men, judging by human standards, complain that prayer is not answered. To benefit by prayer, it is necessary to give up all personal concepts of good. Do not try to fit answered prayer into the mold of human desire. Truth is infinite; therefore, Truth cannot be known in finite terms. Go to God as an empty vessel, desiring fulfillment in God's way and measure. God is not in the human scene. If you were aware of the significance of this statement, you could lay down your life and pick it up again, at will. Life is not at the mercy of matter. God is not power. When you reach the center of Consciousness, you find a complete stillness -- a deep well of Silence. It is not power, since there is nothing for it to be a power to, or over; It just IS. Gaining an awareness of God does not produce harmony. God's presence is the harmony. The only error is the sense of God's absence. The awareness of God does not dispel error -- God Itself is the only harmony. No one can reveal God to another, but by revealing the nature of prayer, we place him in a position to receive the God-experience. The God-experience can come only through the correct understanding of prayer, since prayer is the point of contact with God; prayer is the avenue of awareness of God; prayer is the preparation of consciousness for the God-experience. Seeking guidance from God at this stage of your unfoldment will set up a sense of separation form God: It gives a sense of God and someone needing help, direction, or wisdom. Actually, you need to let God be your life -- then It lives, acts, performs, and IS your very being. In our beginning days of meditation, we pondered or contemplated God, the qualities and nature of God, as we understood Him. As we rose higher in consciousness, we learned that any idea of God that we could entertain was not God Himself, but was only a concept of God. Thus we entered the stillness of mind leading to the deep silence of My peace -- and experienced God. In our student days we sought God, or Truth, as a means to health, peace, security, safety, and harmony. Now we know that these are not to be found outside of Him, and that the experience of God is our only desire. Now we have risen above the desire for health or aught save Him alone. All must rise above the desire for peace, health, joy, and abundance. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God." Seeking the objects of good, such as pleasures, things, and places, for the joy of them is a barrier to spiritual unfoldment. Seeking only the realization of God, pleasures, things, and places of joy naturally come into our experience. Then our pleasure is greater in the realization of their Source. Words and thoughts in prayer are helpful as long as they lead up to the atmosphere of the true communion, which is without words and thoughts. When words and thoughts alone constitute prayer, they become a barrier to the attainment of God-awareness. Do not be misled, here is the secret: Fill your consciousness with the word of God; hear It; read It; ponder It; meditate upon It. This enriches and ripens consciousness, and this deeper, purer consciousness now becomes the cause, law, substance, and activity of your existence. This nobler consciousness which has evolved through study, practice, and meditation attains the conscious communion with God, and reaches through to the deep silence of My peace. Then you are lifted into a realm of atmosphere transcending words and thoughts. The mere reading of truth is but an acquisition of knowledge, not a deepening and enriching of consciousness. It is the deepened and enriched consciousness which is the Christ unto your experience. We do not live on the mortal plane of consciousness where evil can happen. God is not in the realm or reach of mind or thoughts. You must transcend mind and thought in order to reach God. Any response on a lower plane than pure consciousness is from one's self rather than one's Self. O Students! Do not strive or seek for heavenly riches in human consciousness. Wait! Wait! Seek a higher level of consciousness: There the Father's treasures are as free as air. It is a mistake to believe that human desire and prayer will bring God to your side. There must be a rising in consciousness until His presence is attained -- and there rest. Here truly is a perennial rest from care, concern, doubt, and fear. Students are often concerned that their own happiness, peace, and harmony are not complete, that they can bring greater good to others than to themselves. This often brings doubts and fears to the student: doubt that God is still with him; fear that a sense of separation from God may permanently hold him. These things come only that the student never shall be tempted to glorify himself, or take pride in his own understanding. I die hard. It is impossible to maintain a state of consciousness not attained. To assume a state of consciousness not attained is earthly. Consciousness lives Itself -- you do not live It. Withdraw from personal consciousness as rapidly as possible. Let "I" die. Even in metaphysics and spiritual practice, the vision has been on more and larger fish in the nets, instead of on leaving your nets and following Me. There is no such thing as "my harmony," "my health," or "my supply." His peace passeth all understanding. His grace is sufficient. Happiness or unhappiness in human existence, what does it matter? Happiness must be known of the Spirit! Human peace or no peace, what does it matter? Peace must be known of the Soul! Health of the body or no health, what does it matter? Health must be known of God! Wealth of the purse or no wealth, what does it matter? Wealth must be known of Love! In the depths of despair over earthly affairs, this is learned: Find your good in God. I have told you the real secret of life: God is not with mortals. Take it from there. When the spiritual student's house of cards crumbles, he is near to "an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Spiritual Student! Rejoice as the outer building tumbles down, for the inner Temple is to be revealed. The mind of the individual seeking help is the Christ-mind -- awaiting recognition. The man who has his being "in Christ" finds his capacities and abilities in Soul -- not in the brain, body, or muscle. Every action of the organs and every function of the body are the activity of the Soul, appearing as bodily action. Every skill, every talent, every capacity, and every ability of the mind are really the Soul-action made visibly tangible. We live in Him. In Him alone we find our completeness and perfection. Apart from Him we are as trees uprooted from the ground -- as waves separate from the sea. Supply cannot be limited since the Soul is its source and infinity. Soul is the substance, nature, action, and law of all form and is never separate from the form. "Neither circumcision availeth . . . nor uncircumcision." (Galatians 5:2-4; 6:15) This is the Middle Path of The Infinite Way. Since sinlessness is the opposite of sin, it is not this. Since health is the opposite of disease, this is not it. But -- this too is the Middle Path. The crucifixion of the self is accomplished when there is nothing left for which you wish to pray. To those unfolding on the spiritual path, come the discordant experiences of human life, until the transition from "this world" has been completely accomplished. The desire is to avoid or escape these inharmonies of mind, body, or economic affairs -- but this cannot be done, since the discords result solely from the battle with Spirit and "the flesh," that is, with spiritual consciousness and material sense. To those on the way, inharmony in human affairs often is a lack of spiritual awakening; and, therefore, when the battle, leading to the overcoming of "this world" is on, the initiate will remain as quiet as possible under the adverse circumstances, endeavoring to refrain from fighting erroneous conditions and insofar as possible "letting" the warfare go on until the moment of transition arrives. When your spiritual study is sincere, the breaking-up of your material world -- the desertion of friends, students, or family, a change of health or other outer activity -- often ushers in the spiritual transition, or rebirth. This is the attainment of that which you have sought. A tremendous movement is taking place as the initiate discerns the difference between physical harmony and spiritual wholeness. Retire often into the center of Being, my Son. Let divine Love engulf you; be at peace in "My peace." Here you arrive at the great experience: the understanding and attainment of My peace, My wine, My meat -- the infinite invisible Substance, Law, and Cause. O my Child! The blessing that is yours as My peace descends upon you, and envelops and sustains you! Now you know the meaning of "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Now you know the rest to be found in the Spirit -- that which even the harmonies of "this world" can never give. "Peace, peace, be still." Santa Claus God! The reason all desire is sin is that desire is based on the concept of a giving or a withholding God. Also, desire is based on the acceptance of something or someone or some place other than God. Since God alone IS, and is omnipresence, prayer, true prayer, is a state of consciousness, a conscious communion in union. I have been in deep grief -- so intense that it has torn me to pieces inside -- and wondered, "Why, O Lord, why?" In the depth of it, the answer has come: the world's inability to receive and respond to this Christ: the rejection of It by those we expect to possess the gift of vision; the gross ignorance and darkness of the human thought. These bounce back upon me -- these rejections and this opacity. Give me Grace to rise above my sorrow. The Light shines. The Word reveals that when the stumbling block is no longer needed, it is removed. You need not move it, change it, or remove it -- it is removed when it is no longer needed. Thank you, Father, for Love. Truth, as it is usually known or declared, is not Truth, except "in God." When one has attained the realization of life in God, it is true that one is spiritual, divine, and God-governed. Spiritual truth is not true about humanhood, but about Spirit and Its universe. Humanhood is a state of mesmerism, and only as the illusion breaks is one's life "in God." Only "in God" does one attain the realization of perfection, wholeness, completeness, or oneness. Attainment comes only as one is loosed from all concepts of Truth, and this comes only by Grace. Divested of all concepts of Life, Truth, and Love, one stands "in God." Life beyond the grave has no relationship to immortality. Life beyond the grave is but the survival of personality. This personality dies -- it must die either this side or that side of the grave -- in order that immortality may be realized. The immortal Self is ever-present, even when clothed with personality, but is revealed and lived only in proportion as personality, or the human selfhood, disappears. Prayer is not an activity of the human mind. All attempts to contact God through the mind or intellect have failed and always will fail. God can be known only through the Soul and the Soul-faculties. The prayer uttered through the intellect can return fruitage only in proportion to one's belief in that prayer. Faith in an "unknown God" brings only the harmony of blind belief. God must be known and understood through the Soul. To an advanced student: You have reached the place where you know every truth that can be known, understood, or received humanly. Now you must reach higher for the Truth that reveals Itself through spiritual means -- without human means of communication. Why do advanced Souls, even practitioners and teachers, still experience ills and other problems? Whatever degree of mortal or material consciousness that still remains in them is expressing itself. There is no unexpressed consciousness, and even a tiny bit of human consciousness remaining will express itself in terms of human good or evil. This is the law. These two remain side by side until, in proportion as spiritual consciousness unfolds, more and more of material sense is uprooted. Even the Resurrection brought forth a material sense of body, with all the marks of human error. In the Ascension, pure spirituality is revealed. On the spiritual way, many come to barren places--the desert, the wilderness--and believe that God has forsaken them. Often it appears as if Christ had forsaken them. Then it is that the spiritual seeker must remember that he has not yet attained, that what he believed to be the full realization of Truth, the Christ, of God, was not the fullness of the Spirit. These wilderness experiences reveal that he must still press on, for when the Light is fully come, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Remember that discords and inharmonies are apparent only to human sense. Spiritual vision sees through--to Reality. Faith does not concern the past or the future. Faith is an activity taking place in the present--now, only now! Faith is an activity of consciousness--just as much so as integrity. Faith is always present in you, even though, like integrity, it may be dormant. The recognition and acknowledgement of the omnipresence of faith as an activity of individual consciousness starts the flow of it into visible and tangible effect. Faith is a quality of God, not of man; but, as a quality of God, it is present in all its fullness. Do not expect the power of God to function in the "dream," but rather to break the dream. Do not contact God to adjust, change, or heal the dream. The understanding or awareness of God breaks the dream. To know that one has been functioning in the dream is the beginning of the awakening. True non-resistance is the ability not to expect God to function in the dream. This does not mean that one lives without God, but rather, one finds his life to be eternally in God. To refrain from seeking the "help" of God is to be functioning in reality. No longer reaching out to God, no longer seeking God's help is to be awakening out of the dream into reality. Whenever there is a sense of "needing" God, one is functioning in the dream. God is not power in the sense of power over evil, sin, disease, or death. God is not power in any sense involving battle, that is, overcoming or destroying. God is life. God is love. God IS. Nothing else is. Only God IS. Do not be concerned about your relationships with people. Consciously maintain your relationship with God, and this will take care of everything else. Keep your realization of your relationship with God sacred and secret. This relationship, maintained in silence and secrecy, appears outwardly as harmonious human relationships and experiences. God is the cement between you and your brothers and sisters of the human, animal, vegetable, and mineral families. When thought dwells on person, place, or thing, you are functioning in the dream. When your thoughts unite in spiritual contemplation, every person, place, or thing becomes a spiritual delight. The two great Commandments are cosmic law: Thou shalt have no other God or Power; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Cast your bread upon the waters. "For by strength shall no man prevail . . . . The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries." These things we perceive with the five senses are objects of mind, with no relationship to Truth. All appearances are sense-objects--not of God, or Truth. All that is objectively witnessed must be understood to be mental images or mind projections--never spiritual reality. The reality underlies the sense-formation, but is discerned only by spiritual consciousness. The sense-world--human experience--takes place in time and space, and this in itself precludes its being spiritual in nature. The universe of Spirit, Truth, God, is an activity in eternity. Thus understood, neither birth, disease, accident, nor death has ever occurred. In every instance, when presented with the appearance of humanhood -- even good human beings or conditions--remember that this is not truth, but a mental image in thought, without reality, law, substance, cause, or effect. Then "see" deeper into consciousness and behold that which is--eternity even in what appears as past, present, or future. If it takes place in time and space, do not accept it at its appearance-value, but search deeper in the realm of the Soul. Return to "The Infinite Way" Book Menu Page |
Begin your spiritual life with the understanding that all conflicts must be settled within your consciousness.