"A Parenthesis in Eternity" by Joel S. Goldsmith

"A Parenthesis in Eternity" pdf file

Chapter 14 - "And They Shall All Be Taught of God"

All work on the spiritual path is directed toward the development of a consciousness higher than that of the intellect or human mind. In the beginning, when there was no awareness of good or of evil, man lived out from the divine Consciousness, but after what is known as the Fall of Man, he took unto himself a consciousness of his own. He no longer had an awareness of the Father-consciousness: he now had a mortal consciousness, a consciousness of death, as does everyone who is under the universal belief in two powers. The purpose of work on the spiritual path is to bring about the return to this divine state of consciousness.

In some cases, the impartation of that mind which was in Christ Jesus takes place in an individual when, through some act of Grace within himself, the Master—I am not speaking now of a man: I am speaking of the Master, the divine Consciousness—touches an individual and operates in him without the help of a teacher or without the help of a teaching.

Paul, who received his illumination thirty years after the Crucifixion, had no personal teacher to help bring about the spiritual transformation which took place in him. His religious teacher, Gamaliel, was a scholar with a thorough knowledge of Hebrew theology, but probably with little spiritual awareness, and spiritual power seems to have been completely absent from him. So, this Saul of Tarsus, who had been out on the mission of persecuting and helping to kill Christians, this Saul, one of the most highly educated and trained of religious scholars, but apparently without a trace of the spiritual, received his illumination from within himself without the help of a teacher or of a teaching on the outer plane.

Paul may have received his teaching and illumination directly from the Spirit of the Christ Itself, but it may well be that because of his identification with the Judaic movement in the days of the Messiah, he attributed his illumination to the man Jesus who may have appeared to him and taught him. It may even have been that the consciousness of Jesus actually was there as the instrument of this illumination, just as in the case of John who claimed that he was taught by Jesus Christ, and this fifty years after Jesus had been crucified.

Gautama the Buddha went from teacher to teacher for at least seven years, and some say more; and while he must have absorbed something from each one, it was only after he departed from all teachers and began to draw upon the resources within himself that he had the experience of complete illumination under the Bodhi tree.

Without the aid of human teachers or teachings, these men undoubtedly all received their illumination through their own inner devotion to the search for truth, and they are all in agreement that without this illumined mind, man is spiritually nothing: with it he is spiritually everything.

There are two ways of receiving instruction leading to illumination, but always that instruction involves a progressive unfoldment and is by degrees. One way is by direct impartation from God to the consciousness of the student, the way Gautama, Jesus, John, and Paul attained it. The other way is through a teacher and his teaching, whether by direct contact or through his writings. In either case, if the instruction is truly spiritual in nature, it is God revealing Itself.

Bringing about some degree of development of that mind which was also in Christ Jesus has for centuries been the activity of teachers working with students; and these students, through learning and applying specific truths, plus the contact with the teacher's consciousness, gradually take on spiritual light and spiritual power until they finally attain the ultimate.

No one can attain spiritual illumination by choice. If that were possible, probably those with the greatest financial resources would be the first to receive it because if they were interested in finding God they could search out a spiritual teacher and arrange to have him give them all the instruction needed until they reached the goal. Spiritual illumination, however, cannot be bought with money.

No teacher ever chooses a student for any human reason: because he has money, time, or because he may be a good friend. The teacher knows the consciousness of the student and leads him on, and on, and on, watching and waiting for the signs that indicate that there is now a preparedness not only to receive the divine Grace but also the capacity to continue in It.

Unless a person is one of the few able to receive Grace without a human teacher, undoubtedly there comes a time when it is necessary for him to be in the physical presence of his teacher. It is said that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. This does not mean when the student thinks he is ready; it has no relationship whatsoever to what the student thinks. It means when the student is actually ready.

But how will the student know when he is ready? When the teacher appears and taps him on the shoulder. Until then, a student has nothing to do but abide within himself, perfect himself, accept whatever guidance is given to him of which he feels a tightness, and then pray that his day of illumination will come. This day the teacher will recognize before the student does, and usually the teacher is standing by waiting for the student to look up. There comes an experience which in human life is called love at first sight, and that is what happens when the teacher recognizes his student, and the student recognizes his teacher.

It is possible that sometimes a spiritual teacher may misjudge the readiness of the student. Certain it is that Jesus miscalculated the readiness of about twelve of his disciples, but he took those who were most nearly ready, and he did not do too badly with them. Two or three of them turned out fairly well, and that is a good percentage. We must remember that he came in contact with only a limited number of people, many of whom were ignorant, illiterate, and certainly untrained in spiritual matters. Had they all been Essenes, probably his disciples might have accomplished more than they did, but they were not.

It is difficult, almost impossible, for any teacher to say, "You are perfect. You are going to attain the full selflessness." The best that a teacher can do is to sense that a student is ready, not necessarily that he is going to fulfill himself or that he is going to attain the heights of spiritual realization, but that he shows forth all the qualities necessary for attainment, and from then on, it is up to the student whether or not he can attain.

At this point the teacher gives the student all that he has to give, and then it rests with the student to what extent he will be able to complete the journey. No teacher can complete that journey for a student: the teacher can only take the student, lift him, bring him to discernment, and, at a specific time when so instructed from within, confer the initiation. From then on the student, working with the teacher, can go forward, but whether he attains the full measure in this lifetime is something no one can foretell.

The giving and receiving of spiritual instruction is a sacred act and one which must be undertaken by both the student and the teacher with the utmost dedication and consecration. Real spiritual instruction begins only when the student is able to turn to God with such receptivity that he can hear Him speak to him, or when the student has found his teacher or his teaching and comes into the presence of that teacher or teaching with no questions, with no desire but one: Reveal truth to me.

Hie proper attitude of the student is one of sitting at the feet of the master, not with questions, but almost with a pleading, "Give me an understanding of God! Reveal God; reveal Truth." As the student sits in quiet expectation, confidence, and assurance, the teacher is able to let the word of God pour through his consciousness, and then it is not a teacher talking, not a man or a woman, but the very Spirit of God.

In the Orient this kind of teaching was known long, long centuries before the Christian era. In this system there is a spiritual teacher who has attained some measure of spiritual wisdom—some more and some less—and who by sitting quietly in his cave, in his mountain retreat, or by the riverbank gradually attracts those individuals who feel drawn to him. These, then, become his student body. They will sit around the teacher, come back day after day for a session, and sometimes remain for two, three, or four nights and days, or for years, sleeping outdoors if necessary, until some measure of light begins to dawn in their consciousness.

There are other teachers in India who have founded ashrams or have established small temples or places of worship where students can come to them, led there by an inner impulsion. There is no advertising, of course, nor is there ever any reaching out for students. People sometimes travel thousands of miles just to spend a week or two with a particular teacher. Some students come and remain with the teacher for many years because today, in spite of radio and television, there are people, particularly in the Orient, who know that truth cannot be imparted or absorbed over a busy weekend, and they therefore find it quite normal and natural to spend from three to seven or more years with their teacher.

When the student comes into the presence of a spiritual teacher, if he has prayed earnestly and sincerely to be led to his teacher or teaching, he will be in the presence of one who has little knowledge to give, but one who, because of his hours of meditation and attained conscious union with God, will be such a transparency that the Spirit pours through him either in words, thoughts, or in complete silence. In whatever form the instruction is given, however, if the student is receptive, he will receive the impartation. So the work is primarily meditation, with occasional impartations of truth from the teacher which the student can use in his meditations until he attains a degree of awareness of some of these truths.

If the student's mind is in a state of questioning and disputation, if he doubts or has not yet recognized his teacher, he cannot accept spiritual instruction from him. Truth can be received only when the student reaches that deep humility which is willing to admit, "I am empty; I know nothing. Fill me." Then when he comes into the presence of his teacher or finds his teacher's writings, he will be prepared to accept the teaching in humility and without argument, just as we have been prepared to accept the teaching of the Master, not because there is the authority of Christ Jesus behind it, but because something within tells us that this is the truth and we must follow in this way.

No aspirant on the spiritual path should ever be influenced to follow a spiritual teaching simply because his friends have embraced it, are enthusiastic about it, or because it appears to be successful or popular. That has nothing to do with him.

No one should ever be in a hurry to choose his teacher or his teaching. Rather should a person wait until he has such an inner conviction that he has found the right way for him that there is no turning back. Then, when it is revealed to him that this is the way for him, he will follow it even if it is a very difficult one.

When a student finds his spiritual teaching, he should thereafter give up all others, and be as true to that teaching and the teacher as he expects the teacher to be to him. A student has a right to expect from his teacher complete and utter devotion to God and also all the assistance he can give to the spiritual unfoldment of his student; but the student must give that same devotion to God, to his teacher, and to his teaching, abandoning all others and clinging only to the one.

No one should try to ride two horses in the same race. It has never been successfully accomplished. The Master warned that there are many, many persons taking upon themselves the Robe and setting themselves up as the Christ who are not "Christs" at all. There are many teachers parading under the banner of truth who have no understanding of, or relationship whatsoever to, truth. No one can tell another who these are. The student himself will have to be led of the Spirit to find out whether the teacher with whom he is working is "he that should come."

When John the Baptist questioned whether Jesus was the Promised One, Jesus' answer was, "Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."' That is the only proof that can be given.

Nobody can decide for another which teachers and which teachings are true or false. Each one has to stand within himself and measure whatever is offered to him against what he witnesses as demonstrable truth. By the fruitage of the teaching and by the life of the teacher, each one will have to determine which teaching is for him, but no one should attempt to work with two, three, or four teachings at the same time. The Master called upon his disciples to leave their nets—leave their past, leave everything of which they were convinced, leave everything behind them — to follow him, and he would make them fishers of men.

When a person goes to God, it must be with complete surrender and a complete yielding. At first that is not possible because everybody has some religious convictions, even if his convictions are atheistic ones. The student who turns to truth discovers that many of his former beliefs were erroneous man-made teachings or interpretations of teachings, and that he has followed them only through blind obedience and ignorance. Then when he comes to the truth, he is shocked to discover that he cannot continue to accept some of his most cherished beliefs because, to his enlightened sense, they are not true. Some of these he is able to surrender easily, but to others he will cling with unswerving tenacity.

The surrender of all that the student has held most sacred often times takes place against his own inner convictions, against the faith and beliefs that have been stored up for years and years. These he finds difficult to relinquish, and so he continues to attempt to grasp the new while still clinging to the old.

The way of truth is not easy. It is not easy to be a seeker after God because in the end we have to drop all our cherished convictions and come to that new day when we make the great discovery that God is in the very midst of us.

One function of a spiritual teacher is to reveal the principles with which the student must work in order to lift himself in consciousness to an apprehension of the Divine. The Master gave his disciples just such a way when he urged them to pray for their enemies, to pray for those who despitefully used them, to pray in secret, to give alms in secret, and to forgive unto seventy times seven. Jesus' followers were expected to put these teachings into practice, and just as he pointed out certain principles, so today does a teacher of spiritual wisdom receive his own spiritual impartations and reveal them to his students. Such teachings are of no value, however, as long as they are merely impartations from the teacher to the student. They become meaningful and effective only when the student puts them into practice.

Some persons think that reasoning and logic are sufficient for the attaining of the spiritual life, but I learned long ago that no spiritual teaching can be imparted intellectually. The reading of books alone will never give the majority of seekers the real import of a truly spiritual teaching because no one can grasp a spiritual teaching from books unless he is spiritually attuned.

Only through spiritual consciousness can truth be imparted, and it is for this reason that so much time must be devoted to meditation, both on the part of the teacher and of the student. If a student has lifted himself up out of his reasoning, thinking mind into that area of consciousness where his intuitive faculties have full play, then he can comprehend and understand what the teacher is imparting. Otherwise, he is able to hear only with his ear, and in imbibing a spiritual message, hearing with the physical ear is meaningless.

After he has revealed the principles with which the student must work, the second function of the spiritual teacher is to open the consciousness of the student so that a way can be made for the student to reach the center of his own being where God can reveal Itself to him. God is no respecter of persons. God does not choose out of all mankind a Lao-tse, a Buddha, a Shankara, a Jesus, a John, and a Paul and expect all the rest of the world to sit at their feet. No, the world sits at the feet of the enlightened one to leam how he became a light and how it can go and do likewise.

If the student is faithful, a spiritual teacher can open that student's consciousness to a receptivity to the Father within, so that the actual God - experience can come to him. Some persons receive spiritual light very quickly, others more slowly, depending upon the development of the individual: what his background is, how prepared he is to give up the reasoning, thinking, arguing mind, and how willing he is to sit, as it were, at the feet of the master and receive, and receive, and receive.

While there is nothing that can either be asked or answered through the mind that will enhance a student's spiritual understanding or powers one iota, in the beginning it is natural for students to have questions which, when answered, may in some measure correct any false impressions the student may be entertaining and help clear away some of the underbrush in his consciousness, thereby preparing him for a spiritual experience. The teacher does answer the student's questions, but the continued asking of questions means that the student has not attained that inner awareness, and his attention must be directed, not to having his questions answered, but to going deeper and deeper into consciousness until he comes up with the "pearl."

No spiritual teacher avoids answering questions that will clarify the meaning of the message, but once a student has attained the actual contact with his Source, questions seldom arise. As God unfolds in his experience, he is left without questions, without any doubt about what to do, or why. He is not concerned about understanding what sin is, or about being guided as to what he should or should not do. If he knew of how little importance these things are, he would never let them disturb his thought. His one concern would be to follow the light that is within him.

Since spiritual impartation does not come through the human mind or through the reasoning faculties, the only reason that questions have any place at all in the unfolding of spiritual consciousness is because the hodgepodge of erroneous teachings, which many have been taught from their earliest years, will continue to puzzle them until it is cleared out. The day must come, however, when the student realizes that all his questions, together with their answers, are absolutely worthless so far as his spiritual development is concerned.

Spiritual development comes about through the experience of God, not in questions or answers. Through meditation, the teacher works to elevate the consciousness of the student, and this makes the student free. It is not a matter of knowing or not knowing the answer to questions posed by the human mind: it is a matter of attaining spiritual consciousness. Real spiritual teaching begins when the attitude of the student is: "I have no more questions. All I want now are answers, and I want those from God. I want them to come through inspiration either from my teacher or directly from the Spirit of God within me."

Up to the time that such answers are received, the student must satisfy his mind by asking questions. That is the only method by which he can dispose of his queries, skepticism, and doubt, but he should rid himself of these as quickly as possible and then be done with that phase of his spiritual journey, which is only the pre-beginning stage. Even the beginning of spiritual wisdom is not attained until the questions are out of the way and the student is completely emptied and pleads, "The past is passed. I am not even interested in what I heretofore thought or believed. I do not care about answers to questions: I care only about the God-experience. Fill me; fill me with spiritual wisdom; fill me with the presence and power of God."

With that attitude, the student has entered the beginning stage — the First Degree. From then on, by the grace of God which has been given him, the teacher can impart not only spiritual wisdom, but spiritual consciousness. Sooner or later, the way opens so that the student will receive his own impartations from within. The same light that has come to every mystic can then come to him; the same truth that has revealed itself to every mystic can then reveal itself to him. Truth in its essence is the same, but it comes in different language and in different degrees to each and every person.

Truth has come to hundreds of people, but it always comes through an individual. Just as God spoke through Gautama the Buddha, Lao-tse, and Shankara, through Jesus, John, and Paul, so God can speak through the words of any God-realized person, and when the student himself has made the God-contact, truth will come through him.

The teaching that is imparted without words and without thoughts is the only absolute teaching there is. There have been students in The Infinite Way who have been able to receive such teaching, and when that happens there are long periods of complete silence in which no word is spoken, and none thought, and yet the message is conveyed to them.

There does not have to be any conversation between teacher and student because there is an area of consciousness which is really an area of impartation, so that without speech and without thought whatever communication is necessary between the student and the teacher will take place. It is not necessary to speak or to think when two people are attuned, but they cannot be attuned by having something in common humanly — only by knowing that I AM.

When no personal sense enters, either in imparting or receiving that is absolute teaching. It is accomplished entirely on the spiritual plane. When the Absolute is reached and the student rises with the teacher into divine Consciousness, the human sense of truth drops away.

The spiritual teacher is not a mentalist. He never intrudes into the mind of his student, nor does he ever try to influence his student's thought even for good. The teacher's work is the purely spiritual work of making contact with God, and then letting it appear to his students as it will.

The ultimate destiny of a student has to be realized in his own consciousness. True, he may avail himself of a teacher, of a teaching, or of books. Books, of themselves, however, will not make his demonstration: they are merely tools or instruments for his use as he goes into his periods of contemplative meditation. When he is in prayer and communion in that inner sanctuary within himself, there the transition takes place, the Word is heard, and ultimately the indissoluble union is revealed.

If the teacher is in conscious union with God and the student is attuned to the teacher's consciousness, sooner or later the student will have some kind of an experience. It may be an experience in which he has an actual realization of the presence of God. If he is a Christian, it may Tesult in his recognizing a presence that he identifies as Jesus Christ; if he is a Buddhist, he may identify it as Buddha; but it is the same Consciousness appearing as different forms. Even though It appears as a person, It will be God appearing, and what the student has done is merely to translate the appearance into what most nearly approaches his idea of a spiritual teacher.

The spiritual teacher makes conscious contact with God, and then if the student is sufficiently attuned, that conscious union may on occasion appear to his student as a mystical experience in which he will behold some form of Reality that he will translate in accordance with his own state of consciousness.

Through the God-contact of the teacher, the student receives the God-experience and his illumination, but no teacher can do this for, or to, a person by willing it, desiring it, or trying to make it come about through any mental means. This will only thwart it and can lead to danger.

Truth imparts itself through the teacher-consciousness, and when the student is receptive, that teaching is received, but because the instruction is not received in the mind, but in the Soul, the student would not be able to pass a rigid examination on it. The only way to know whether or not he has received it is that the light is shining in his face, and the fruits of the Spirit are appearing in his experience.

Within the consciousness of each one of us there is a something. It is impossible to reveal the true nature of it, except to explain that to me it seems as if it were a tightly closed bud, almost like a fresh new rosebud. As students come to me, I can sometimes feel that something in them, that tight little bud in their consciousness, and I know it is their spiritual nature, the Christ or the divinity of them.

In Oriental teaching this is symbolized by the lotus. As the lotus opens, it represents a greater degree of spiritual illumination, and this can be observed in all Oriental art where figures representing attained spiritual consciousness are depicted as either sitting or standing in the middle of the open lotus. Spiritually interpreted, that means that they are rooted and grounded and established in the divine Consciousness.

Often I see this little bud in the consciousness of an individual, and as the relationship of student and teacher continues, I can watch as it opens and unfolds until it is a full-blown flower.

Some of us may not humanly have a spiritual teacher or even know of one, but inasmuch as no spiritually illumined person has ever passed from Consciousness, all the great spiritual lights of the past arc still functioning, and they are just as available to you and to me as is a teacher living on this plane right now. There are many persons who have contacted a teacher within their consciousness without ever having had a teacher on the outer plane. This does not mean that they have achieved their spiritual light of themselves. No one can do that. The light is awakened in them by someone who is the light, whether or not they contact him in the human experience or are even aware of his existence.

Should it be necessary for us to find a teacher or even to contact some teacher on the inner plane who could be an instrument for bringing this wisdom to us, he will appear. When we are in meditation, we are tuning in to the 1 that we are, the Source, and receiving whatever is necessary from that Infinity. It may be that right from the pure Source Itself wisdom comes, unfoldment and revelation. Sometimes it leads us to a book in which we find what we have been seeking, but that is only because we are not yet fully attuned to receiving it directly from the Source. There are other times when the great spiritual lights of past ages serve as teachers to us. God never brings the activity of the spiritually illumined to an end, and that spiritual illumination is available now and is operating on earth, inspiring, teaching, and helping all those who are turning to God.

For example, today I am a teacher revealing truth, but if tomorrow I should do what we call "die" and my physical presence should leave this world, that would not remove me. My I would still be here. What is done with my body would make very little difference because the I of me would still be here and could still teach if only those reaching out for that teaching can realize that there is no death and that we are separated from physical sight but not from actual communion.

If we truly believe in deathlessness, we know that Lao-tse, Gautama, Jesus, and John are still functioning, but because we cannot be aware of anything outside our consciousness, the only place they can function is in our consciousness: they cannot be up in heaven and they cannot be out in space. It is perfectly possible, therefore, for any great teacher to be our teacher until such time as we have complete access to the Source and Fount Itself without mediation.

Many persons receive impartations in this way without even knowing that they have a teacher because all teachers do not announce or reveal themselves: they merely work through the consciousness of the individual in a completely impersonal sense. Whether we are touching the I Itself or whether there is mediation is of no importance. If the impartations are coming through a teacher, they are coming from the Source — not from the teacher, only through the teacher. No teacher could be a teacher if he were not one with the Source.

There is an invisible bond connecting us with every spiritual being, person, activity, thought, and thing in the entire world. Through the realization of that, we are instantaneously at-one with the spiritual consciousness of those who have lived throughout all time. We are instantaneously at-one with the spiritual consciousness of everyone functioning on earth, and of all those who have not yet been born.

Every one exists here and now. But where is here? Are we talking about a room or about consciousness? The I of us is not, and never can be, in a room. The room in which our body is, is in our consciousness. That is what makes us aware of it. So, if we are attuned to the inspired masters of all ages, we have them with us at this moment in our consciousness.

On this point hinges a tremendous revelation: we are never alone. Just as we attract to ourselves the companionship we deserve at any given moment, so in our invisible life there is companionship. As Jesus could tabernacle with Moses and Elias whom he looked upon as great teachers and spiritual seers, so do we today have those who are our companions on the spiritual path. You have yours, and I have mine—if so be we awaken to the realization that none of these has died, that our own is with us, and our own teacher is within us. Your teacher may be a man or a woman living in this particular parenthesis, or your teacher may be an invisible Presence and Power. Such is the mystical life.

This communion is always with a divine state of consciousness, not with a human consciousness existing on another plane. Regardless of how many generations have elapsed, the possibility of contact exists because merely possessing a different form would not change the situation. We are not limited to a body; we exist not as a physicality, but as the I that we are, that I which we know ourselves to be.

If I wish to commune with you, I have to close my eyes, shut out the appearance, and go deep down within my consciousness. There I find the I that you really are—the Soul, the divine child of God, the I that lives in the bosom of the Father and has never left the Father.

We do not have to go any further than to turn to the I within to receive impartations of truth and of wisdom from the Source because that I is one with the Source. In the very chair where we are sitting are both the Father and the Son — God the Father, and God the Son. We have only to turn within, and the I which is the Father begins to reveal Itself, Its truth, Its wisdom.

Then if these impartations do not come in the form of words or thoughts, it makes 110 difference: they will still appear as effect. We may have no awareness that anything has taken place, but as long as we have gone within and made ourselves a state of receptivity, we can be assured that something is going to happen in the visible.

Let us never forget that we do not have to go out searching for masters, or turning round and round in our mind trying to find them. What we have to do is to seek the kingdom of God, to desire God-consciousness and God-awareness, and if this is to come to us through the God-inspired, they will find us. It may not even be necessary that we know the identity of those who are destined to guide us. There are many inspired and illumined men and women on earth who are totally unaware of that identity or of the individual source of their inspiration and strength. Others are consciously aware of specific identities, but I have never known of one who had this awareness who sought it. It was the grace of God that brought it to him.

If we seek illumination from any being less than God, we certainly can be led astray into idolatry. But if we seek it of God, and it comes through an instrument of God, through one illumined of God, there is no idolatry in that, and there is no personalizing of it. If we understand that masters are merely those individuals who, by their spiritual preparedness, have been illumined of God, we will not worship them: we will appreciate them and be grateful to them for being instruments through which God appears to us. If we see them as something separate and apart from God, however, we may make the mistake of worshiping them as masters, and that can lead to trouble, just as if we were to worship human teachers on this plane instead of understanding what their function is and what makes them teachers. Teachers are not teachers because of themselves: they are teachers because of a preparation that has been going on over many lifetimes and has made of them transparencies through which God, Truth, can be revealed to human consciousness.

When we understand teachers in that light, we will be grateful to them for the life they lead, but we will never go so far afield as to worship them; and when they pass from our personal experience, we will not feel that troth has been taken from us. Rather will we understand that from then on, truth will come either directly to us from within our own being, or if we have not yet reached that stage, another teacher or master will find us.

So whether our particular teacher is on this plane or another, we can understand him correctly only if we understand that he comes to us as an instrument through which God, Truth, can reach us. Then if perchance we become aware of someone acting as an instrument from another plane and if through that contact the fruitage is good, we need not fear it, but welcome it. If, on the other hand, we find ourselves touching a realm on another plane made up of good and evil, we can know that we have touched only the human plane, whether here or there.

The real teacher knows that I was before Abraham, and that I will be with him until the end of the world. That we are unable to see this teacher or this I with our human eyes makes no difference because I is not a physicality: I is Spirit; I is consciousness; I is life eternal, and if we can understand that, then where the I of the teacher is physically will never concern us, for that I will always be where we are, unto the end of the world, unto the end of time. I will be where we are, but inasmuch as the I of the teacher is the I of us, we can have that individualized I with us wherever we are by knowing that the I of our being is where the I of the teacher is: we are inseparable and we are indivisible.

At a certain moment, when all the necessary requirements have been fulfilled, the light of the teacher's consciousness illumines the student, and then the student comes into the full awareness of his true identity and has a transcendental experience. When that takes place, the student is as free and independent as the teacher, and is in the full and complete realization of his true identity and of the identity of every man, woman, and child in the world.

Through this developed spiritual eye, we see the heart of an individual and the heart of nature: the heart of a leaf, of a flower, and even the heart of a stone. There is no such thing as dead matter. Everything there is lives and breathes, and everything there is has a soul. There are souls in stones, and there are souls in trees, but these souls are the one Soul interpreted at different levels. Seen materially, a stone is a stone. Seen mentally, a stone can be a weapon. Seen spiritually, a stone is really a little spark of God — a jewel, a gem — and strangely enough, it is incorporeal: it has form, structure, color, and beauty, but it does not have density. So with a tree: a tree has form, light, beauty, color, grace, but it has no density when perceived through the transcendental consciousness.

No man of himself can bestow the Holy Ghost upon another, but as an instrument of God, the teacher becomes the transparency through which God reaches human consciousness, elevates and purifies it, lifts it from the stony soil into the barren, and from the barren into the fertile.

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