"A Parenthesis in Eternity" by Joel S. Goldsmith

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Chapter 32 - Address the World Silently with Peace

More and more, as we follow the mystical path, we become spiritual centers, and out from us is projected spiritual light and wisdom, the spiritual Presence and Power. Sometimes it is hard for beginners to grasp the idea that no one attains spiritual wisdom or spiritual light for his own sake, or for any personal benefit that may come to him. Whenever spiritual light comes to a person, he is called upon for that light, and from those who have the most, of them is the most expected.

It is almost unthinkable that Moses could have gone away to live the rest of his life by himself after he had received his illumination on the mountain. How could Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jesus, John, and Paul have hidden their spiritual light under a bushel basket, or gone away to a cave somewhere or a mountain retreat, and lived this spiritual life unto themselves?

This is true also of those who are lesser lights. Every grain of spiritual light that we attain is meant, not for ourselves, but that it may be used for the benefit of human consciousness in general, until human consciousness is entirely dissolved, and nothing remains but that mind which was also in Christ Jesus. It might seem that the light an individual receives dissolves some of the grosser consciousness of his own being, but that is not true, because no one, of himself, has any mortal consciousness. All the mortal consciousness there is, is the universal sense of separation from God, which is a universal hypnotism.

Every bit of light that any person receives, therefore, dissolves some measure of that human, mortal, or carnal mind, some measure of the vast human illusion of which material sense consists. This dissolution of material sense can be observed in our own experience or in that of our family as these spiritual principles solve some problem for us or remove some undesirable trait or negative experience.

As we take each principle of truth and apply it to the working out of some personal problem, and as we attain enough light so that the particular problem is met, we will find that thereafter we will be called upon, day after day, to share our understanding and to apply the wisdom given us to the problems of others. We may wonder how our friends know that we have this light, and humanly they do not know: it is only that spiritually they have discerned the direction toward which they can turn for help.

The demands made upon us will become greater and greater, as our spiritual light and wisdom increase, until eventually we discover that we are not only more aware of the problems of the world, but we are also beginning to apply our understanding of truth to them. Then we will observe how quickly the light that we have received is beginning to dispel the darkness of the wider circle of humanity.

In our early experience there are practitioners and teachers to whom we can turn, and they usually solve most of our problems for us. This is but a temporary relationship because the time comes when we begin to meet our own problems through our own understanding, and turn to someone for help only when we are faced with a problem that does not yield to our present understanding. Then, of course, we have every right to seek the help of those who have attained some deeper realization of truth, and who have gone a step further on the Path. As we continue, however, we find ourselves asking less and less help of others, more and more able to solve our own problems, and also able to help those in our immediate environment, and eventually we begin to work spiritually with the problems of the world.

All the help that we can ever be to anyone, any group, or to the world is in direct proportion to our understanding of the spiritual principles with which we are working, and to the degree of spiritual consciousness we have attained. Ours is the responsibility to study, to meditate, and to do all that is necessary to bring greater light to our individual consciousness, not for our own sake alone, but that this light which touches our consciousness may flow forth to the world and benefit it, that we may become a center from which goes out this light of healing, regeneration, blessing, peace, comfort, and especially forgiving.

How few of us realize the importance of the forgiving consciousness! Does not everyone carry with him the memory of some sin of omission or commission which, if he could, he would recall or undo? Do we not all have at least some small feeling of guilt? Are we not always hoping for our own forgiveness and trying to forgive ourselves, and often finding that very hard to do? That is why it is so necessary that each one of us develops the forgivingness side of his consciousness, so that everyone who comes to us may feel a complete absence of judgment, criticism, or condemnation.

We do not go about telling anyone that we do not condemn him. We would hardly say to another, "1 know that underneath, you are as much of a sinner as I am." We do not express this audibly: we know it, and we know that just as we wish to be relieved of our sins of omission and commission, so do we know that everyone else does. Above all other things, it behooves us to develop within ourselves a consciousness that inwardly, silently, and sacredly—not outwardly in speech—can say to our relatives and neighbors, "There is no judgment upon you; there is no memory of the past: there is only the understanding of this moment." This was the attitude shown forth by the Master when he forgave the woman taken in adultery, and when he said to the thief on the cross, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."

Sin has a far deeper meaning than the commonly accepted concept of it. Sin is not only lying, stealing, cheating, bearing false witness, committing adultery and murder; sin also includes those minor ignorances into which we were all born: the human judgments and inhibitions, the human fears and superstitions. The forgiving consciousness dissolves all of this.

Anyone who can realize that the errors of his life have all been brought about by ignorance, superstition, and fear can easily develop a forgiving consciousness. That kind of a consciousness is a healing consciousness because it understands the nature of the universal fears, superstitions, and ignorance. It lives always in that atmosphere of releasing everyone from his hidden fears and hidden sins, whether of omission or commission, all of which are not personal, but the result of a universal sense of condemnation.

For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
ROMANS 7:15

In this statement Paul recognized that there was nothing personal about sin. Sin becomes a part of our experience only because it is a part of the universal ignorance of human consciousness; and then in some weak moment we indulge the very things that later we regret, most of them minor, but occasionally something of a major nature. What a blessing it is, when faced with a sense of guilt, to come into the presence of a person whose mind is not filled with criticism, judgment, and condemnation, but who understands, forgives and forgives, and whose gentleness is such that no thought enters his mind of any harsh nature!

This is having that mind which was in Christ Jesus, and as we rise to that state of consciousness, everyone who comes within range of our consciousness feels what the world calls love. Forgiveness is an attribute of love; understanding is an attribute of love; and above all, understanding the universal nature of the evils of the world is love. To understand is to forgive; to forgive is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

When we understand the impersonal, universal nature of evil, we will understand the spiritual nature of individual being, and why, in spite of those things that outwardly appear to be our faults, we are forever and always the temple of God. We will understand why it is that these faults are not ours, but the universal hypnotism, and that our real nature is a center from which emanates God's grace and God's love, a very center of peace and harmony. This inner peace can come to us only when we have released mankind from its faults, our neighbor from responsibility for his past, and our friends and relatives from our condemnation: "Go thy way in peace. Thou, too, art the child of God; thou, too, art the temple of the living God."

On every hand mankind is gripped by fear in the face of nerveshattering world conditions, and those of us who have been able, even in a measure, to see the unreal nature of the evil rampant in the world have not only the responsibility of releasing people from their fears, but, in releasing them from their fears, preventing the greater tragedy that their fears may bring upon them. People do not fear because they are cowards: they fear because they are gripped by a universal hypnotism that makes them act in ways foreign to their own nature. It is mass hysteria, having its foundation in ignorance.

All world affairs eventually will be subject unto the influence of the Divine through the prayer that God's grace is sufficient unto this world. We do not pray to God for victory or that our enemies may be destroyed. We abide in the will and the way of God. We do not make the mistake of trying to channel God to do our will: we pray that the Spirit of God flow through us and bring justice to earth, not in accord with our concept of it, but in accord with the divine idea of justice; we tune in to God in the realization that if we make this contact and God is on the scene, there will be equity, mercy, harmony, peace, and all the divine qualities made manifest equally everywhere. We do not let the conditioned mind determine what we hope God will do, or how He will do it: we approach God with an unconditioned mind:

Thy grace is my sufficiency. Thy grace is the sufficiency unto this universe. Let It take form as It will.

The Word becomes flesh. All that concerns us is to hear the Word, and then let that Word become flesh, not outlining what form It should take. Let us never go to God with any thought of victory over anything or anyone. Victory always implies a right and a wrong; it means a winner and a loser, and there cannot be winners in God, nor can there be losers. There cannot be a right in God or a wrong in God: there can be only Spirit, spiritual Grace, and spiritual harmony, and this not in accord with man's opinion.

The questions knocking at the consciousness of all those who, to a degree, are living in the circle of eternity, and who are thereby living according to the two great Commandments, are: How can we express our love for our fellow man in a concrete way? How can we help to allay these fears and quiet this mass hysteria?

First, and above all things, we must withhold judgment and understand that people are not responsible for their fears: they are victims of a mass hypnotism. After we have done that, we can tum to the specific truth of Scripture which reveals that God is the life of man, the life of the universe, eternal and immortal life. Whatever life we have, then, is the life that was given us of God, and it must be God's life that is our life—divine, spiritual, immortal, and eternal Life. Do we, therefore, have any other life but that which was given to us of God, our Father?

What a release from all fear would come to us once we could realize that God constitutes our life eternal, that the Father's life is our only life, that we have no life of our own to lose, that we have never had any life but the life of God, that the very Spirit of God dwells in our being, even in our body, and that our body is the temple of the living God!

Disease has no power of survival in our body once we are able to discern that we have no life of our own. God constitutes the very breath of our being, the very life of our being. The belief of age and limitation has no power when we see that our life did not come into being fifty, sixty, or seventy years ago, but that the life that came into expression then is the immortal life that came forth from the Fountain of Life. God breathed into us His life — not your life or mine, but His life — and His life is my life and your life, and His life is immortal life and eternal life, and you and I are the temple of that Life:

Thank You, Father. I had no life of my own to begin with, and I have no life of my own that can come to an end. The life that I have been given is Your life, the life of the spiritual son of God.

As we abide in that Word and let that Word abide in us, as we consciously entertain this truth, we become aware of the effect that it has on our mind and body. To understand that the life of God is animating us is to "die" to the belief that we have a life of our own, and that it even has an age attached to it.

It will not be long before we feel the magical effects of this truth in our mind and in our body, and as we continue to dwell in the Word, quickly we will begin to realize that this is a universal truth. Silently and secretly, we shall find ourselves looking at every member of our household and rejoicing in the truth: "I know thee now who thou art. The life of God is your life; the Christ-life is your life"; and soon there will be changes in the mind and in the body of everyone around us.

Now we are becoming the center from which this light is flowing, the center through which forgiveness, understanding, and truth will begin to pour. Then, as we read or learn of this mass hysteria, whether it is some epidemic going its rounds or whether it is long-range missiles or bomb-proof shelters—whatever it may be—we will be so at peace within ourselves that as we see our friends succumbing to this hysteria, within ourselves we will say, "Thank God, I know that you have life eternal, and whether you know it or not, I know that your life is not in danger. I know that not even your body is in danger, for your body is the temple of the living God." The peace that flows out from us will be felt throughout the whole community, and as it flows from community to community, the day will come when this hysteria will end.

Peace must begin somewhere, and it must begin with one individual. Spiritual light has always entered consciousness through one individual so permeated with truth that a dozen disciples here, or a half dozen there, have caught hold of it, and then from them come the fifty, the two hundred, and the two thousand. No one can be the light of the world: he can be only the light that sparks the light in others until it spreads around the world. So it is that we become that one in our household, that one in our neighborhood, and, depending on the depth and degree of our own love, we can become the one to a whole nation or a group of nations. Why not? It always begins with one.

We can be that one; we can be that light in the measure of our understanding; but if we do not perceive that the God that is our life and the life of every individual is the same God that was the life of Jesus Christ, we can have no part in bringing peace to this troubled and fearful world.

Are not all death and destruction based on the belief that each one has a life of his own, a life that can terminate at some particular moment? But there is only one Life, one Father, one Creator, one creative Principle, and this One has breathed into us that Life which is eternal and immortal. How could any weapon destroy that Life? Once we can really see this, we become, not only the light unto our world, but the life unto our world. We resurrect our neighbor from the tomb of the belief that he has a life of his own and that it is in danger. We become the source of the peace that passes understanding; we become the source of forgiveness; we become the comforter.

None of us was born just for the purpose of living threescore years and ten, twenty, or thirty, accomplishing something for ourselves or for our families, and then dying. None of us was born to attain name or fame, except such as comes to us as a part of God's glory. We were all bom to show forth God's glory, and the only reason we exist is to show forth God's life on earth, His eternal and immortal life. When we really know that, deep down inside, we are virtually addressing it to every member of our household, but if we are wise, we do this silently, sacredly, secretly.

The prayers that we pray in secret are the prayers that are answered openly. The truth that we address to another which has for its main purpose letting the world be made aware of how much truth we know is so much wasted truth. It is a waste to those to whom it is addressed and, furthermore, it deprives us of the benefit of it because we ourselves lose a little in giving it where it is not wanted.

There is only one time when truth should be voiced, and that is when truth goes out from a spiritual teacher to an open and receptive consciousness. Then it goes out in a circle and comes back because there is that spiritual bond between teacher and student. Teaching truth to the masses serves no purpose, but when seekers bring themselves to a spiritual message or teacher, they are receptive and responsive, and the message that comes through is a blessing to them and to the teacher. When we find someone eager to hear and to learn, then we share openly whatever we have learned: otherwise we pray silently, secretly, and sacredly, and these truths that we know within ourselves are received by those who could not receive them consciously, but who can receive them because of the spiritual bond that exists among all children of God.

Within ourselves we can know the truth about everyone in our household:

You are the child of God; you are the temple of the living God. God is your life, your Soul, your being, your mind; and even your body is the temple of the living God.

We know this truth silently and sacredly, voicing it audibly only to those who ask and seek it, those who welcome it.

Then, as we leave our household, we remember that in order to love our neighbor as ourselves, we must know this truth about every neighbor, friendly neighbor and enemy neighbor, nearby neighbor and neighbor ten thousand miles away:

You are the Christ, the son of the living God. The Christ-life is your immortal and eternal life. The life of the Father is the life of all mankind.

Such a realization may touch those in high places and in low places, in every kind of place, and may awaken them in the measure of their readiness.

Our responsibility in life is to be a center of light, to be the light of the world, and so to permeate ourselves with truth throughout our waking hours that it circulates in our consciousness even when we are asleep. Our spiritual being never sleeps, and anyone who reaches out to us finds this truth awaiting him, even while our physical senses are at rest. Our consciousness rests in action, but we spark it by the fact that our last thought at night is one of spiritual truth, a welcome to anyone in the world, anywhere, any time, to reach out to our consciousness to find the blessing of the truth we have known before we dropped off to sleep.

Every time that we consciously remember that the only life there is on earth is the life of God, we are helping to allay fear, we are helping to restore the peace that passes understanding. Until peace has been established in our innermost being, there will be no domestic or world peace. Only when peace shall have been established in the minds and hearts of mankind will peace be restored nationally and internationally.

At some period of each day, we must face out toward the world and remember:

Lo, I am with you always. I am the life divine; I am eternal life. 1 am with you always.

As we thus address our household, our neighborhood, and then go to the window and address the world, we will be the light of the world.

When the grace of God is received in your consciousness and mine, it is not a static and limited something embodied somewhere within our frame: it is a light that permeates us and flows out through us and from us; and inasmuch as there are no barriers to the activity of Spirit, this light which we have received as the result of our union with our Source flows out through the walls and windows of our homes into the world and becomes a leaven wherever an individual is raising his thought to God, regardless of what concept of God he may entertain. Whether he be in a hospital or in a prison, whether lie be walking the earth free or be living in some nation where he is in slavery, if he is lifting his thought above human power, to whatever may be his concept of the Divine, the light which goes out from us and through us because of our meditation reaches that receptive Soul, and in some measure lightens his burden, sometimes freeing him from sin, disease, and false appetites.

As we unite with the Source of life and let It have Its will, Its rule and reign on earth as it is in heaven, wherever there is a receptive thought, wherever there is an individual who may be saying, "Oh, God, God, God, help me! Is there something beyond the human?" that Soul will be touched by the Spirit of God that is upon us. We thereby unknowingly become transparencies through which this light flows to a world full of darkness, sin, ignorance, poverty, and bondage. To be the instrument through which God's grace may touch all human consciousness and enlighten and awaken it that all mankind may be free — this is living the mystical life.

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