"A Parenthesis in Eternity" by Joel S. Goldsmith

"A Parenthesis in Eternity" pdf file

Chapter 21 - "The Spirit of the Lord God . . . Hath Anointed Me"

Once the mystical realm has been touched, we live in a world where things happen that never happen in the human realm. It was in this realm that Jesus was living at the time of the Transfiguration, and it was through his conscious oneness with the Father that he was able to show Moses and Elias to the disciples, thereby proving to them that these prophets had never died.

In the mystical realm there is no past, present, or future: there is only now. The form that we think of as our body is not externalized reality, nor is it outside of our being: it is a mental concept or image in thought. The spiritual form as which we exist today is the same form as which we existed yesterday, and it is the form as which we will exist forever. The I of us and of all God-substance are one and the same, and even the body is made of that same pure substance. I is incorporeal and spiritual; I has form, but it is not a dense form: it has no thickness and it has no weight. It is really a "light" form. To begin to perceive this is to understand that our present existence is of the same spiritual nature as our pre-existence was and as our future existences will be.

As we unfold spiritually, we are no longer quite as aware of physical form as we were before. Instead of noticing the physical appearance of a person we meet, we quickly look into his eyes because behind those eves sits the I. We have learned by now that a person can never be found in any part of his body: in his feet, legs, torso, or even in his brain. It is in meeting the eyes that we meet the person.

The further we go in spiritual development, the less awareness we have of, and the less importance do we impute to, outlined physical form. We begin to perceive other forms of beauty, real beauty, intelligence, even love and life shining out of a person's eyes, or around his lips. We hear something in his voice and catch glimpses of something deep within him.

As our state of consciousness evolves to a higher level, we even rise above that and become aware of an aura or an atmosphere, and regardless of what the physical appearance or the speech of a person may be, we are either drawn to the atmosphere flowing out from him, repelled by it, or we are indifferent to it.

Everyone carries his atmosphere with him, and there is no way to hide it or cover it up. For a person of spiritual discernment, it is not too hard to sense whether those with whom he comes in contact are simply good human beings or whether they have developed spiritually to any degree. Something tells us when that spiritual development is present in a person. The person himself cannot tell it because, if he does, that is a denial of it. But we can feel it and are attracted to it. In fact, such a height of spiritual elevation can be reached that a person with a highly enough developed spiritual consciousness can see the entire body of a spiritually illumined person disappear and, in its place, there will be nothing left but light. It may be either a light around the body with the body invisible, or the entire body may be a body of light. This is a momentary thing; it does not last for long, but it does happen.

Nobody can say, "I am spiritual, and my body is light," and then expect that others will be able to see that light. No, even when a person has attained the place where he is a body of light, no one else can see that body as light until he himself has attained the degree of spiritual illumination that makes it possible to witness what is there.

At the time of the Transfiguration, Jesus was at the stage of his unfoldment where he was no longer a man: he had become the Way, the Truth, and the Life—incorporeal and wholly spiritual— but as far as those in his immediate environment were concerned, he was still walking around in what the universal human mind interprets as human form. His friends, relatives, and followers had not risen in consciousness. They still remained on the human plane, so they, therefore, were able to cognize only materiality.

During the experience of the Transfiguration, Jesus had with him the most highly developed of his disciples, and inasmuch as by this time they were perhaps too far advanced spiritually to be taught much more of the letter of truth, they were with him on the Mount only for inspiration, meditation, and illumination.

Through his meditation and through his going deeper and deeper within himself, he was able to raise his disciples the extra notch that was necessary so that their human sense was "dead," and as he became more deeply immersed in the Spirit, the fullness of his spiritual body, his light-body, was made evident to them. They had "died" to their finite sense and had been lifted to a state of consciousness where they could behold him as he really was.

Every practitioner who has worked spiritually, or even one who has used mental arguments, has been lifted up above mental argument to a place where it stopped, and quietness began. Such a practitioner has witnessed something much like the Transfiguration even though he may not have been aware of it. In response to a call for help from some person, he may have so far forgotten the person and the condition in his knowing the truth about God that all of a sudden he came to the end of the mental argument and for just a flashone tiny bit of a second—something happened: it was as if he had seen spiritual man, and then he knew that every thing was all right.

He may not have realized what had happened, but in that blinding flash he lost all sense of corporeality and saw man as he is. He did not see him with his eyes: he perceived him with his inner vision. He saw with inner spiritual discernment, and with that inner spiritual discernment there was that second's glimpse of the real man.

So we continue with our spiritual development and unfoldment. We catch a glimpse of spiritual man, sometimes even of spiritual form, and eventually we arrive at the place where it is almost a daily experience to see some person, usually a patient or a student, in his spiritual identity.

The Transfiguration is not an experience of two thousand yean ago. It is a continuing experience that always has been and always will be. It is an experience in which individuals so lift themselves above the physical or mental state that they become less aware of the corporeal form, and more aware of what is shining through that form. Thus we have Transfiguration, and we have it here, and we have it now, available for all who have eyes to see.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. -- Luke 4:18

That is the mystical experience. But before that happens, we are human beings, separate and apart from God, mortals who have no God-contact, who are not blessed or reached by God, and not even known to God. When we first feel that divine Presence, however, we are ordained; we are no longer human beings, no longer mortal: we are now the sons of God. We are still the son of man insofar as those who see our body are concerned; we eat and drink, use transportation, and carry on our normal daily activities, but we are the son of God in that those things are the least part of our life. The major part of our life now is the presence and power of God, the same Presence and Power which Jesus said anointed and ordained him to heal the sick.

When a person comes to that place where a transition has taken place in his consciousness and he no longer looks out on this life and sees men and women, good and bad, sick and well, but is able to see through the human picture to the spiritual reality, that one is spiritually ordained.

There is no need to tell this to anyone, to advertise, or to voice it because when the Spirit of the Lord God is upon a person and he has received light, there is something within his consciousness that communicates itself silently to others. They feel comfortable in his presence, and they ask him to pray for them.

It makes no difference where he lives, whether in a tiny village or a big city, as the word spreads, he will be called upon for comfort, healing, and eventually for teaching. His work will grow because the moment anyone has a healing, he is quick to tell his friends and relatives and to write to those in other cities and states. The teacher may never receive honor in his own city; he may remain hidden in his home and not even his next-door neighbor realize the work that j,e is carrying on, but he will be known far and wide. Nothing spreads quite so rapidly as the news about a healer who can heal.

The Master was wise when he said, "Go and tell no man." No person should ever advertise in any way the spiritual light that has come to him, or give testimonies about it, but he does give a cup of cold water in this spiritual Name whenever the opportunity presents itself- An indication of the degree of spiritual light that has come to anyone is his willingness to be anonymous, to stay away from the activities of the world, and to be drawn only where he can be of service.

If we sincerely love truth, we will give ourselves unstintingly to the search. Whatever is necessary to do, we will do: if it is to buy books or teachings, if it is to give time, if it is effort, if it is devotion, if it is meditation, whatever is necessary to give, we will give. Every part of our life must be dedicated to God; our first fruits must be given to God, for God is not to be attained with a little spare time or a little spare change. It takes the whole heart, the whole Soul, the whole love of one's being, and above all things, it takes secrecy. We let not our right hand know what our left hand is doing. We do not tell our neighbors or our friends and relatives that we are seeking God because when we have found Him, they will know it without our telling them.

Every person who goes into spiritual work must be certain that he has been called and ordained of the Spirit and that he has not engaged in this activity simply because of a human desire. To desire a spiritual activity is a wrong desire: to want to meet God face to face, to experience Him, to want spiritual light and illumination— this is the only desire that is worthwhile. Human ordination does not make a man spiritual, nor does it make of him a healer or a comforter. Only spiritual ordination from the Father within can do that. What happens to a person after the light comes rests with God, not with man.

The spiritual teacher must wait until he knows within himself that the Spirit of the Lord God is upon him and that he has been ordained to heal the sick, to lift up, to redeem, to forgive; and he must also be veTy sure that he is ready to pay the price.

Few people realize the price that has to be paid for engaging in spiritual work. Many still have the idea that it is a part-time job, or that a person in this minishy works for an hour or two a week giving lectures and classes, and then hires a big firm of income tax specialists to make out his income tax. That is nonsense. Spiritual work demands a seven-day week, and usually a twelve- to eighteen-hour day. As a rule it means the loss of one's family, and it always means the loss of one's friends because in spiritual work no one has the leisure necessary to enjoy friendships or for time-consuming social dilly-dallying.

If a person is not prepared to leave this world and all his friends, even his family if necessary, he obviously has not been ordained and has no right to embark on this activity, because in spiritual work no one's life is any longer his own. The truly spiritual teacher belongs to his students and patients. If he is unwilling to have a telephone at his bedside and be awakened at any hour of the night, or if he does not go about almost with a walkie-talkie, he does not belong in the work because he must be at the beck and call of telephones, mail, and telegrams or cablegrams seven days a week. There is no time out for weekends or vacations, and it is extremely rare for the person in this work to have even an occasional holiday.

Sometimes the price is paid in the coin of loneliness. No matter how many students the teacher of spiritual wisdom may have or how many friends, in his spiritual life he will have to be content to live all alone in the center of his being. He may be physically present with many people, but he is not otherwise present. The price is high! Everyone who has been successful in this work knows how very high it is; and the price one has to pay in loss of family and friends, and in loneliness, does not take into consideration the hatred that is brought down upon the person who stands for truth— sometimes the persecution, and always the misunderstanding. Nobody can quite see another's motive because he is not seeing through the same state of illumination, and what someone else is thinking and doing very often looks wrong to a person who is on a different level of consciousness.

So the questions that must be answered by us in the depth of our consciousness are: Do we love the Lord God with all our heart and with all our Soul, and for no other reason than to want to know God? Do we want to make that dedication and devotion to God our life, and leave the healing and teaching to the Christ within us? This we must answer in our hearts. Only a love of God, a love of being in God's company — away from people, not with people — must remain.

Above all things, if we have any desire whatsoever for the spiritual life, we must realize that we cannot at the same time have a desire for some outer activity. Our only desire must be for God Himself: to love Him, to know Him, to commune with Him—and not for any reason. If we have a reason, we will erect a barrier. No one must ever go to God for a reason. To go to God to commune with Him, that is enough. Then, if we are entrusted with spiritual work, that is just one of the added things.

On the day when the Christ touches us, that is the day of our mystical experience. We do not become mystics—we may never become mystics on this plane. This experience of the Christ may be only the preparation for the day when we will be mystics, but we will have the mystical experience, and it will be followed by others, as long as we are living in the awareness of the Presence.

In the assurance of the Presence we rest, not on our human wisdom, our human health, or human strength: we rest on It, and It is almost like resting back on a cloud, so tangible and so evident is It. It is much more valuable, much more powerful, much more present, and much more satisfying and reliable than any human relationship lias ever been.

That is the I AM; that is the Christ; that is the son of God. When the son of God is conceived or born in us, from then on, if we nurture It, if we keep reaching toward It, relying on It, keep turning within and acknowledging Its presence and power, It develops and grows. We have to take It down to "Egypt" to hide It because if we tell our friends and neighbors about It, they may ridicule us to such an extent that we may wish such a way of life had never become a part of our experience; but as we keep It secret and sacred, one day It becomes evident by Its fruits.

It never becomes evident as a tangible thing. Nobody will ever come up to us and say, "Oh, you have the Christ." But very often people do come up to us and ask, "What are you doing lately?" or "What are you reading or thinking? You seem to be changed, and things seem to be improving for you." There is no recognition of the Christ as such. What has happened is that the Spirit of the Lord God is upon us, and now we are ordained to speak the truth, to heal the sick, and to comfort those in need of comfort.

After this first glimpse comes to us, this first awareness that there is a Presence within us which really does miracle-working things, from then on we behold It at work. "He performeth the thing that is appointed for me. . . . The Lord will make perfect that which concerneth me."

In the very moment we attain a realization that we are no longer alone, that there is a Presence and a Power within us, we have touched the mystical experience, the experience of a transcendental infinite Presence, a transcendental Something that cannot be explained. It goes right to the roots and the marrow of our bones and bodies and makes us every whit whole. It cements relationships. It takes persons out of our lives, too, who cannot be a part of a spiritual life.

There are many persons who have mystical experiences, but they are not therefore mystics: they have merely accidentally had an experience that was never again repeated. Mystics are those individuals who have attained conscious union with God and who can attain this union almost at will—although not completely so because it is not a matter of human will power. Those who do actually attain the mystical consciousness recognize it for what it is, and they thereafter live in that consciousness at least in some measure most of the time, and in the fullness of it at frequent periods.

Many a time some students have felt that they have had a spiritual experience, but have found later that it was either an emotional or an occult one, stemming from the mental realm and not the spiritual. But when we have a genuine spiritual experience and the Presence becomes very real to us, and there is an inner stirring or awakening, there are always signs following so that we cannot mistake the way. If some question remains in our mind as to the validity of the experience, obviously we have not had the experience, for when that occurs there is no question.

God is positive. God never leaves us in doubt. He may make us wait. In fact, in the spiritual life there are often long periods of waiting, waiting between one step and the next, between one unfoldment and the next, or between one experience and the next. Spiritual experiences do not come every day of the week, just by turning something on and turning it off, or by closing the eyes for meditation.

Each spiritual experience is like a plateau, and our progress on the Path like a series of plateaus. We Teach a particular plateau, and then stand there, seemingly making no progress, and all we can do is wait. There is nothing to do but wait. Just as a rosebud cannot be hurried into a rose, but must take its normal natural time to unfold, so must a spiritual experience.

So we have an experience, and it is deep and rich; it is bright; it is light; and it gives us a vision beyond anything we have ever known before. We live with that, and we work with it, and we dream with it, and all the time whatever work is given us to do is performed. Then it seems as if everything is taken away, and there comes an emptiness, a vacuum, a sense of absence from God, a sense of separation, but this is only to make us ready for the next step or plateau, for a still higher experience and unfoldment.

These experiences are not given to us lightly, nor do we earn them lightly, nor can we ever deserve them. They come by Grace, and each one places a demand on us that we fulfill life at the level of that realization until by Grace the next one is given us. We cannot doubt these experiences, nor can we ever tell of them. This may be surprising because many books have been written about initiation and about the lives of the great masters. But do you believe that any one of these accounts is authentic? Do you believe that any master has ever revealed the inner secrets of his spiritual life? In all the history of the world could there be a manuscript or a book fully revealing the inner life of a mystic? Can such an experience ever be expressed in words?

Even though the mystical experience may not come to you in its fullness, it is not likely that you are on this Path without the possibility of having some measure of spiritual experience. The very fact that you have been led to a spiritual path would indicate that there is something in store for you of that nature. When it does come, regardless of how small the experience may be, or how great, do not share it with anyone because to do so is virtually to ensure that it will not happen again, and that it will not bear fruitage.

If you have a spiritual teacher who has played a part in bringing you into the light, you may share your experience with your teacher, and thereby be led into a greater expansion of consciousness because your teacher knows how to hold your experience secret and sacred, and deepen and enrich it. But no one else—not a parent, not a wife, not a husband, not a child, not a friend—should ever share the depth of a spiritual experience—no one but your teacher, if you have one.

Those who have never had a spiritual experience do not speak this language, and they therefore have no way of understanding what we are talking about. Friends and relatives think we have gone off ccnter, and they begin to doubt our sanity. So it is the part of wisdom to remember that spiritual experiences are not a subject to be flaunted before the world to bolster one's ego or to make one seem great in the eyes of others.

Many persons believe that the spiritual experience will increase their health and wealth, or increase their powers, making itself evident in some human way. But the Master did not accumulate wealth, and in his own days on earth he was never accepted as a saviour. He was a very much misunderstood person, and a much persecuted one. He never attained name or fame while on earth, nor for hundreds of years afterward.

A mystic is never known as a mystic to anyone except the few who have the ability to discern the spiritually real behind the appearance. A real mystic will never set himself up as a great teacher or as the head of anything because that is not the nature of the mystic. Left to himself, a mystic would prefer to live separate and apart from the world and carry on his work in secret.

The mystic wears no robe; the mystic wears no halo: the mystic is a simple person with an inner light and with enough wisdom to keep that light hidden from the outside world—not to seek place or position by means of it, but always willing to share it with those who recognize and desire it.

If we have a spiritual experience or have been given a spiritual message, the world will beat a pathway to our door. If we have the light, if we are the light, we shall never need to announce it: the world will seek us out. It is far better to wait until we are ordained of the Spirit, and then let those who have seen the son of God raised up in us come to us, and let us share with them whatever measure of light we have.

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