"A Parenthesis in Eternity" by Joel S. Goldsmith

"A Parenthesis in Eternity" pdf file

Chapter 15 - Self Surrender

Students setting out on the spiritual adventure often labor under the misapprehension that they are going to mount up on to Cloud Nine, Ten, or Eleven and not come down to earth at all except perhaps to help a few of their neighbors. But it does not work out that way, although at first there may be for them an "adding to" kind of experience.

The spiritual path is a way of sacrifice; it is a giving up, a surrender. If we can picture the Master saying to his disciples, "Leave your nets," or the disciples, the apostles, and the two hundred going about carrying the Christ-message far and wide, yet taking no thought for their life, depending upon neither purse nor scrip, suffering persecution and later on death itself, we can begin to realize that the way of the Christ is not a way of getting, but of givingness: it is a way of surrender.

Usually the metaphysical student does not come to a truth-teaching to surrender or to give up anything. His primary thought is on what he will get out of it, and while there should be no criticism or condemnation of those who are on that level of consciousness, it must be recognized that getting has nothing whatsoever to do with a spiritual teaching.

It is true, however, that the first year or two of study does result in a considerable amount of getting for most students. Their personal lives begin to be adjusted; harmonies come into their experience: greater health, sometimes a greater supply, and nearly always a greater sense of peace.

A year or so later they run into a little trouble: the ego comes into the picture as students begin to realize that in order to attain spiritual grace they are called upon to surrender all human qualities, desires, and passions—not only their evil ones, but also traits labeled by the world as good. Many cherished things have to go out the window when the Spirit comes in. Many comforts have to relinquished, and this is the period when even physical difficulties may arise.

The human body has within itself the potentiality of discord and disease, and if it is left to itself, these errors would just continue multiplying until they became serious enough to cause pain. Under a program of two or three years of very serious spiritual work, however, these errors are not permitted to lie dormant: they are roused up.

It is not only physical discords that lie dormant in most persons but the ego itself because in many cases it has had very little opportunity to receive any attention. Those who have known little of honor and glory and who often feel like nobodies, which really all of us are as human beings, suddenly begin to blossom and find themselves in the midst of activities heretofore unknown. Then it is that the dear little ego is fanned and begins to feel important. With that comes the period of rebellion—the inability of the ego to maintain a proper perspective—and a period of struggle ensues.

In other words, during this second, third, or fourth year of very serious spiritual study, we can expect the worst of us to come to the surface, whether it is a physical worst, a mental worst, or even of moral worst. In many different ways the early years are troublesome ones because, if the temptations that come are not wisely handled, we can find ourselves, not only like Lot's wife looking back at the city, the state of consciousness, that she had left, but also walking back to those cities, to those places of outgrown consciousness which we have long since gone beyond. The goal looks so far away that we may become discouraged and decide to turn back. It is in these years, therefore, that we need to watch ourselves most closely to be sure that we are not overcome by our problems or by the situations that face us, but that we continue moving forward.

During this period of unrest, doubts and questions come to our thought: Am I on the right path? Is this my way? If we could but remember the changes that have taken place in our life or if we could just recall the blessings that we have witnessed in the lives of others on this Path, we would know that regardless of what may have happened to us, this is still the way. Unfortunately, in this period of doubt, most persons forget all the evidence they have had over the years which should have been sufficient to prove to them that this is the way for them.

And so it is that at this point those of us who aspire to the spiritual life must remember that the goal of the Spirit is not more or better matter. The goal is not merely adding more material good, not doubling or quadrupling our income, or turning a sick body into a well one. If, however, we believe that those things represent the goal and that judging by appearances we have failed to reach that goal, we mav be tempted to leave the high road and turn away from what our real goal should be.

The spiritual path leads to God-realization, to God-government and God-contTol. Along the Way, and as a result of our progress on that Way, healings come to us: physical, mental, moral, financial, and healings also of discordant human relationships. These, however, are not the goal: they are but the added things. At some point in our experience they may serve as a temporary proof of the tightness of the Path, but in the final analysis they never are, because "neither will thev be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." But these healings, nevertheless, do serve a purpose, and a good one, and they are ncccssary to the fulfillment of the teaching of Jesus Christ.

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." That is the promise, but there are footsteps leading up to the fulfillment of that promise, and these are sometimes very, very hard, primarily because of the surrender that is nccessary.

For the person who is merely seeking more harmony in his daily life, however, this surrender is not necessary. A little reading or an occasional call upon a practitioner or a teacher will give him sufficient help to make him comfortable so that he can go along avoiding most of the discords of human life, and leave the ultimate working out of his salvation to some future time, perhaps even to some future life. But for those who cannot rest in that, for those who have felt the son of God in their breast and who have had their footsteps turned to a spiritual path, there is no such thing as being satisfied with a little physical comfort, mental and moral stability, or financial security. There has to be the pressing onward to the ultimate goal, and that is where the surrender comes in.

We must surrender all desire to the one desire: to see God face to face, to know Him, and to let the will of God be made manifest in us. There must come the complete surrender of our personal selfhood, so that the Spirit of God can fulfill Itself in us in accordance with Its will, not with ours.

It is the will of God that we have life eternal; it is the will of God that we bear fruit richly. As a matter of fact, the Christ is planted in our consciousness for one reason, and one only: that we might be at peace; that we might have life and have it more abundantly; that if we are blind, our eyes may be opened; if we are deaf, our ears may be unstopped; in other words, that the grace of God fill us with an infinite abundance of spiritual good. Christ Jesus said not one word about using the spiritual path as a goal to acquire palaces and kingdoms and earthly treasures. Rather did he say, "My kingdom is not of this world."

The student of spiritual wisdom must pray, not for the kingdoms of this world, not for "the four temporal kingdoms." One of the reasons for our discontent is that the four temporal kingdoms have not been fulfilled in us as we had hoped they might- be, and now we are being called upon to surrender our desire for those kingdoms — for the things of "this world," for the things for which we have heretofore prayed. Our goal must now be the purely spiritual one of attaining the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is a state of great peace and harmony; it is a place of many mansions where everyone is a master, and there are no servants. What a strange kingdom! A place in which there are all these great wonders, but no servants to take care of them. Each one is a master, and each one is his own servant. Unfortunately, however, some persons believe that heaven is a place where they will be masters with servants to wait upon them. It must come as a shock to many to realize that in their spiritual ongoing, there are no places of honor, greatness, or fame; there are no kings and princes; there is no upper ten or lower five. All these are one in Christ Jesus: there are no greater and no lesser. There is only a complete dependance on the Spirit of God.

There is a Spirit of Christ, and It will raise up our mortal bodies; It will be the bread and the wine and the water to our experience; It will take us out of those empty years of the locusts. There is a Spirit, but there is a price to be paid for It — a surrender. Spirituality cannot be added to a vessel already full of materiality. We cannot add the kingdom of heaven to our personal sense of self; we cannot attain the kingdom of heaven if there is an inordinate love of personal power, a love of glory, a love of name or fame, or a desire merely to show forth the benefits and the fruitage of the Spirit in the form of better human circumstances. Our vessel must be empty of self before it can be filled with the grace of God.

The Master Christ Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, touched the lepers, and served in any and every way to show that it was not he, himself, who had power, but that it was the grace of God that was operating through him, not a Grace in him alone, but a Grace that would operate in all those who were willing to leave their nets and empty themselves of self.

When a person realizes that it is impossible for him of his own self to do any mighty works, impossible even to have enough understanding to heal a simple headache, then, and then only, does he become an empty vessel through which the Spirit of God can do Its work on earth. It is when sitting humbly and completely aware of one's inability, even to know how to pray, that the Spirit of God can function and perform Its miracles on earth.

The Spirit of God is ever-present to lift us up out of our every infirmity, but it has to have a human consciousness to use as an instrument. There had to be a Jesus Christ to perform those miraculous and instantaneous healings in Galilee. There had to be disciples to carry on the healing work. God always acts through an individual consciousness, just as He acted through Moses, Elijah, and the disciples, and as He has acted through the mystics, metaphysicians, practitioners, and teachers of these later days. God operates through the instrumentality of individual human consciousness when individual consciousness is purged of its desire for self-glorification, for self-profit, or for whatever it is that "the four temporal kingdoms" represent to a person.

When we come to the point of serving as practitioners or teachers, we shall have to be courageous and completely purged of any personal sense because we will undoubtedly offend many of the very persons whom we wish to bless. In this ministry there can be no catering to anyone because of his position, wealth, or fame; there can be no catering to the grosser part of human nature. Every person will have to be brought to the same state of surrender, and, therefore, we may have to "pluck out eyes," "cut off hands," and point out, "This way is straight and narrow, and you either follow in the straight and narrow way, or you will not enter." This Path is not the pathway of popularity. We may make ourselves unpopular because we will be called upon to discipline, to correct, and to teach undeviating principles which the human mind resisted in the days of Moses and of Jesus Christ, and always will resist. The human mind had to have its golden calf even after Moses had revealed the nature of God; it wants a golden calf today because human nature does not like to surrender its golden calves, and the biggest golden calf it has is self — self-indulgence, self, self, self. The human mind wants anything but self-surrender.

Man has to be a hollow emptiness through which the Spirit prays, but when the Spirit prays in and through man, spiritual fruitage takes place in this world. It is the Spirit of God that performs the great healing works on earth through those people who are able to be still and silent, listening ever and always for the voice of the Lord. Into the emptiness inside, the Spirit of God flows, and spiritual fruitage appears.

Certainly in the early stages it may be painful when the Spirit is breaking up the humanness in us; certainly there will be disturbances in our existence. These we must accept with gratitude. This very pain and these very disturbances indicate that undersirable traits, qualities, and conditions are no longer lying dormant within us. Now they are being roused up, rooted out, and if we are faithful we will be purified.

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