"A Parenthesis in Eternity" by Joel S. Goldsmith

"A Parenthesis in Eternity" pdf file

Chapter 18 - The Function of the Mind

After we have been in the First Degree long enough for its lessons to solidify in consciousness, we begin to realize that we ourselves are responsible for our character and for the harmonies or discords that are coming into our experience, and that it is within our power to prevent or remove the discords and inharmonies of life from being a part of our experience.

When we were living only as human beings, it was largely a matter of chance or luck whether the right circumstances came or the wrong, the right person or the wrong. The one thing every human being is sure of is that he is not responsible for the ills that befall him and, if he is honest, he will have to admit that he is not too responsible for the good things that happen either: they just happen.

When we realize that we ourselves have it within our power to determine our experience, that we could have prevented most of our troubles had we only known what we know now, and moreover that we can begin at any moment to change the entire course of our experience, we begin to take hold of our life and mold it in accord with our desires, not just accepting what someone thrusts upon us or what the world deals out to us.

As we sow, so shall we reap. In the human experience it is we, ourselves, who are forming our own life, and we are doing it either by living a materialistic kind of life or by beginning to understand that we can live by the word of God if we will but take the word of God into our life. We reap what we sow.

In the Second Degree a great principle is revealed: a mind imbued with truth is a law of harmony unto our life; a mind ignorant of truth results in a life of chance, luck, and circumstance, a life over which we have no control. We can control our life only in proportion to the truth we entertain in our consciousness. We ourselves can determine whether we want one hour out of twenty-four of harmony, or twenty-four out of twenty-four. We alone can determine how much of our attention we wish to give to truth, to every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

In the early stages of the Second Degree we begin to apply and use principles of truth, taking hold of our life and governing it by spiritual law. If there is a problem of supply, we realize that supply is spiritual, within us; it is the very presence of God, for God is fulfillment. We work along this line; we remind ourselves of truth, and mentally apply every statement of truth we know to the erroneous appearances that present themselves. If we have a task to perform and it seems to be too hard for us, we turn within and remember that He perfects that which concerns us. As we relax in that remembrance, before we know it, our task is performed.

It is in this second stage that our humanhood mounts and improves, and we are coming closer to where we can be like the scribes and the Pharisees, claiming that we are righteous and virtuous, good men and good women, and proud of it—and of course we are trying our best to make everybody else over in our own image and likeness.

It is not long before we begin to think that we of ourselves are doing all this and that we are very clever and capable. We are ridding ourselves of all our discords and bringing about harmony, and we think that this mind of ours is really powerful. It is then that we may begin to believe that mind is God.

There are many persons who use the word "mind" as synonymous with God, but the very fact that we can use our mind is in itself proof that mind cannot be God because it is hardly possible that anyone could use God, and moreover since the mind can be used for both good and evil, it cannot be God, for God is above the pairs of opposites.

When the secrets of the mind were first revealed, it was evident that the mind could be used for both good and evil. But some of those who learned these secrets could not maintain their spiritual integrity, nor did they have sufficient humility to be servants. To these people conversant with mind-power and its potentialities, the idea presented itself that inasmuch as they knew how to work with thought, thought and mind must be power. Mind, according to them, therefore must be God; and thought, the instrument of God, must be power. This led them away from the spiritual path; they dropped out of their particular wisdom school; and some of them became founders of what are known as the black brotherhoods. These brotherhoods were made up largely of men who had originally been part of a spiritual teaching, but who, after discovering the powers of the mind, left that teaching and formed brotherhoods where they could make use of mental powers for their own glorification and personal profit. Unquestionably, many members of these groups used mental power for what to them was a good purpose, but too often these mind-powers were used primarily for selfish or ulterior purposes.

Many books have been written on the subject of witchcraft, voodooism, and malpractice, some of them containing authentic accounts of actual experiences which testified to the fact that while these people had touched the realm of mind, they had not yet touched the realm of Spirit. The ceremonies, rites, and rituals of most of the primitive races of which 1 have any knowledge were, and are, based on the power of the mind. Participants in the primitive ritual dances shriek, holler, and scream, and paint their faces in grotesque fashion, all for the purpose of frightening the spectator, instilling fear in his heart, and a dread of some terrible power close at hand. Every trick of the art of suggestion is used.

The higher we go in spiritual awareness, the more we learn about the mental realm, not because we seek that knowledge, but because it is revealed to us. It is like being on a mountaintop where, having readied the summit, we can see from that height down into the valley far better than those who are looking out from the limited perspective of the valley. Those who are on the spiritual level can see into the mind, thereby becoming aware of things that those living a materialistic and mental life can never know because they are too close to the picture and too much involved.

A knowledge of the secrets of the mind gained through spiritual wisdom is entirely different from the knowledge gained through the human mentality. Moses, for example, had been initiated into all the secrets of occultism at the Court of the Pharaohs, and when he returned to Egypt after his I-AM-THAT-I-AM revelation, he and Aaron performed mental tricks such as transforming the rod into a serpent and turning the water of the river into blood. This was pure mental manipulation. It all took place on the mental plane and was in no sense spiritual.

What we must remember always is that even when such tricks are used by spiritual-minded men, they are still mental. They may play a part in the life of the spiritual disciplc who rises high enough, as is evidenced in the experience of Moses, but they will do so only for one reason. Moses made no use whatsoever of these mental tricks when he was at the stage of leading the Hebrew people, but in the presence of the Pharaoh and all his magicians, how do we know but that he may not have felt himself called upon to prove to them in their own language what he could do?

A person of developed mentality can withdraw consciousness from any part of his body, and have no sensation there. In India, this mental control is a form of yoga which teaches such complete control of the body that a person can virtually do anything with it that he wants, depending on the degree of his practice and determination.

In our humanhood we are usually subject to the whims of the body: it tells us when it feels pleasure, when it is in pain, when it is cold, and when it is hot, and we do not seem to be able to do anything about it except change the outer conditions in an attempt to make it happy. As we rise into the mental plane, however, the body does not exercise that much control over us, and often instead of its telling us, we can tell it how to act and feel. This is because we have arrived at the placc where we realize that heat and cold are not properties of the body: they are properties of the mind. The body does not know when it is hot or cold; it does not even know whether it is alive or dead. The mind of man does know, and therefore the mind can be trained to reach that point of development where regardless of how hot or how cold the body is, the mind does not report it.

Men of spiritual illumination leam everything there is to be known about the mind and the body, but they do not use this knowledge for performing tricks, for show, or for a display of power. If an occasion should arise when they need to use it secretly and sacredly for some demonstration of dominion, or if there is ever a time when they feel the necessity of using it in public, they might do so. Normally, however, those of spiritual illumination do not ever resort to an exhibition of mental power, although it is true that the spiritually illumined know how the mind operates and how it can be manipulated.

The mind does have a rightful purpose in our experience. At the present time, the scientific world is beginning to agree with the findings of spiritually developed men and women that mind is the substance of this physical universe. The universe that we know with the physical senses is not a material universe: it is a mental universe. This material body is not material: it is a mental creation, the mindcreation of the second chapter of Genesis.

The substance of body is mind. In and of itself, the body is dead; it has no life, no sensation, and no intelligence; it cannot move itself about. It is our mind that governs our body, and therefore our bodv can behave or misbehave, according to our mind. When we perceive this, we can understand that as long as we are functioning on the level of mind, we are functioning on the level of either good or evil, so this cannot be God. God is neither good nor evil: God is Spirit.

In the Second Degree, then, we leam that the truth with which the mind is imbued becomes tangible as the health of our body, as the abundance of our supply, and as the harmony of our experience. Whereas before we were spiritually blind, in ignorance, and governed by circumstances, conditions, environment, and prenatal experiences, now we are being governed by the truth that we entertain in our consciousness. Truth is the substance and the law of harmony, but this truth does not dangle around in the air: it must be embodied and incorporated in our mind.

If we use the mind for personal and selfish ends without considering the effects upon others or upon the world, we are heading for trouble, because as we sow, so shall we reap. If, in using our mind for our own gain or satisfaction, we injure anyone, that injury will return to us. There is no denying that we can use the mind in any way we want to use it — erroneously, selfishly, or personally, and without due regard for the rights of others — but this may prove extremely dangerous and may be fraught with dire consequences.

As long as the mind is governed by truth, there will be no selfishness in it because we will not be directing the mind toward specific ends, but only toward attaining a greater awareness of truth, and letting this truth change our consciousness.

Entertaining truth in consciousness is not for the purpose of being able to buy expensive automobiles, palatial yachts, or magnificent homes; it is not for the purpose of reducing a fever or getting rid of a disease: the purpose of entertaining truth in consciousness is to spiritualize mind and body, to bring to our awareness the light of truth so that our whole being may be transformed from a materialistic sense to a spiritual sense. By the truth entertained in our consciousness, by this renewing of our mind, we are transformed from the man of earth into that man who has his being in Christ.

But this truth must be the truth about God. There is no truth about man; there is no truth about supply; there is no truth about health; there is no truth about safety. The only truth there is, is the truth about God, the tTuth that God is the substance of our body, our business, and our life. God is the cement of our human relationships: God is our fortress and our high tower. In Him, not in material or physical structures, do we live, and move, and have our being.

God must be in everything we do throughout our work in the Second Degree—God. By dwelling in this consciousness of God as our being and nature, gradually all hate, fear, and love of the outer world disappear, and their place is taken by a realization of the Spirit within.

Every word of truth that we embody in our consciousness becomes the breath of life to us, even the very activity of the organs of our body. We do not have to think of any of our bodily functions: all we have to think of is of God as the activity and the law unto our being, and then all action is performed harmoniously and perfectly in accordance with divine law.

Originally, the mind was—and it must again become that for which it was created—an instrument of awareness and knowledge. For example, through our mind-faculties we can know that God governs the weather, but with our mind we cannot make the weather good or bad, although by realizing God as the very nature, substance, and activity of weather, we can bring harmonious weather into visibility. Using the mind to create something or to draw some person to us would be taking the mind out of its natural orbit, and we might thereby bring forth something that could become a Frankenstein to us.

When the mind is used for the purpose of knowing the truth, that truth then becomes the law of harmony unto our experience; it sets us free from every sense of limitation: physical, mental, moral, and financial. The truth that we entertain in our consciousness takes over our life, eliminating discords and inharmonies and bringing about peace, harmony, and security.

It is in this Second Degree that we decide whether we will serve God or mammon, and if we decide to serve God, we must determine how many hours a day we will serve Him. Eventually, those who follow this Path leam that there is not a moment of the day when their mind is not stayed on truth. They do not have to state truth consciously: they are living it. It is much the same as living an honest life. Honest people live honestly: they do not entertain in their thought ideas of dishonesty, but that does not mean they have to go around declaring, stating, or affirming that they are honest. If they have attained an honest state of consciousness, they merely live honestly.

In the unfolding of our spiritual consciousness, which means oui progress or journey from a material sense of life back to the Father's house, we may have to know and affirm truth for hours and hours and hours to break the discordant appearance. We have to live with this truth until, through our meditations, there eventually comes a time when the contact with our Source is so well established that we never have to use the mind again for the purpose of knowing the truth: truth springs up from within our own being and utters itself to us. We do not declare it any more: it declares itself.

When the Voice utters Itself through us, the healing is instantaneous and complete. So it is that when we have studied truth, worked with it and lived it, filled our consciousness with truth day and night, then one day in our meditation, we find that whenever it is necessary for a truth to appear, we have only to close our eyes, turn within in an attitude of "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth," and then truth comes up from within and announces itself to us. When that happens, there are signs following.

At first we fill our consciousness with truth until the mind is transformed from a material to a spiritual base; then we stop using our mind as a mental power to make something happen, and let it become an avenue or an instrument of awareness through which to receive God's grace. Ultimately we live by the Grace that flows from the Spirit within, and that becomes apparent to us through the mind.

From the time of our entrance into the First Degree, we worked toward the goal of the God-experience, but whereas in the First Degree we concerned ourselves only with practicing the presence of God and with meditation, in the Second Degree we begin to apply every word of spiritual truth we can to our daily living, thereby spiritualizing the mind until eventually our mind no longer reaches out for some kind of a weapon—whether mental, verbal, or physical — but automatically goes within for a word of truth.

At that stage of consciousness, regardless of what problem presents itself, we reach into our consciousness for a word of truth with which to meet it. Whereas the human mind would think of running to a policeman, to a law court, or to some other kind of a human weapon, we rush back inside ourselves for the truth with which to meet the situation. We are now learning not to use the commonly accepted modes or means of life, but to rely upon the word of truth that is within our consciousness. Eventually we will draw from within our own consciousness enough truth to change our entire world because we are learning in this Second Degree that our consciousness embodies all the truth that has ever been known from the beginning of time.

For more years than can be numbered, religion has had as one of its objects the conversion of individuals in the hope that, if all the people of the world could be converted, a new world would emerge. What most of these zealots have failed to realize is that by the time everyone had been converted, a new generation would have been born, and they would have to begin the same work all over again.

The Infinite Way reveals, however, that the conversion of the world or even of a whole generation is not necessary: it is only necessary that a sufficient number attain the ability to go within and draw their spiritual good from that Withinness, and then the next generation will be born into this new consciousness. It is out of the understanding that good and evil are impersonal that the state of consciousness of the next generation is being built. The state of consciousness that we are forming, therefore, is not merely your consciousness or mine. Can consciousness be limited to time or space? Is not every word of truth that is transforming our state of consciousness also, in a measure, transforming the state of consciousness of the entire world? Once truth is brought to light in individual consciousness, the next generation will be born into the same state of consciousness that we have developed.

Consciousness cannot be limited. God is individual consciousness and God is infinite; therefore, our consciousness is infinite. Through the realization of this Infinity, a composer could shower the world with original melodies, or a writer could invent new plots and ideas for the next hundred years. This complete reliance on infinite Consciousness does not entail going out into the world for anything: it means going within ourselves, bringing forth all things needful as the effects of a spiritual impulse, and then beholding how this Infinity forms Itself on the outer plane.

The part the mind plays in all this is at once apparent. Through the activity of our mind it is we who go back into our consciousness, into the center of our being, and draw forth spiritual truth. Thereby we are enriching our entire life—our body as well as our mind.

The earth has to be fertilized; it has to have water and sunshine; and in proportion as it gets these, does it bring forth abundant fruit. So with us. The mind must be enriched; it must be fed with spiritual meat, wine, and water; and the only place it can get these is from the Soul, from the deep Withinness. As we bring this nourishment up and let it feed our mind, we are building that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus, and that mind becomes the substance of our body. Whatever the nature of the food we feed our mind, that is the nature of the quality of our body since our mind is the substance of our physical body. Every time that we turn ;within and bring forth a word of truth, we have released it into consciousness, and we have not only fertilized and enriched our own state of consciousness but we have enriched the state of consciousness of the world.

Mind, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. Mind is unconditioned. Behind our mind we stand, and we have the power to fill our mind with good or with evil, with abundance or with lack. We can fill our mind with truth, leave it empty, or we can let it be filled with the mesmerism of the world. Mind is unconditioned, and we are either letting it be permeated with the rubbish of "this world" or with wisdom, with material or with spiritual thoughts.

Because the mind is an instrument, it can become aware of truth in its entirety, whereas if it relies wholly on what is already known, it never can rise out of its self-imposed limitations and leam what is awaiting its opening. As long as we do not limit our mind to what we hear or read and as long as we are willing to go back into our Self, we can be taught of God—given wisdom, safety, and direction. This, however, does involve a surrender of the little self and the ability to be still and know that the I at the center is God; it involves a willingness to listen and let God direct and illumine the mind.

When we have progressed in the Second Degree to the point where we have spiritualized the mind, where we understand the mind to be an unconditioned channel for God's wisdom, and have learned to be still, then when problems are brought to us for solution, we are not concerned about thinking thoughts, but go within and let His voice utter itself, let ourselves be instructed from within, and let His power come through.

Although it usually takes students from five to nine years to encompass the Second Degree—not a quick process—they do not have to wait those long years for the fruitage to appear. The fruitage begins to come very quickly: it is only the full attainment that does not come so quickly.

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve." Shall we serve the discords and inharmonies of this world along with some of its pleasures, or shall we rise above both its discords and pleasures and leam the secret of "My kingdom"?

In the First and Second Degrees, most of us do attain harmony of body, pocketbook, and of human relationships, but this is only a step on the spiritual path because we have not yet discerned the real nature of immortality, etemality, and infinity, of completeness and of perfection. That lies ahead of us—but not until we have encompassed these two degrees.

"In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. . . . Be still, and know that I am God." I, that I, way deep down inside us, that I comforts us, that I is the Presence, that I will instruct us. Then we will never have to use our mind as a power, but this rich spiritual food which wells up from within will feed our mind and become the substance and activity of our life and our body.

Return to the "A Parenthesis in Eternity" homepage